Sur le Mariage
by Kelly Melly
Summary: A what if on Scarlett asking Rhett for seperate rooms.
1. Chapter 1

Scarlett walked into the nursery and immediately saw Rhett sitting next to Bonnie's crib; the children, Wade and Ella, were standing next to him. He was apparently deep into a story and Wade and Ella seemed to be hanging on the edge of every word that he said. But as soon as Rhett saw her in the doorway, his story abruptly stopped and he turned his full attention to her. She lifted her chin in defiance, instinctively ready for battle, though there was no way for Rhett to know what it was that she was about to suggest. She opened her mouth once in an effort to speak, but closed it again only to open it once more to say in very clipped tones, "We need to talk".

Rhett's eyebrows went up quickly, whether out of amusement or curiosity at her attitude, she wasn't sure. He turned to the children and explained that he would finish the story later. He patted Wade on the arm and pinched the end of Ella's nose, both reacting with a grin and a giggle. Scarlett was so glad that Rhett loved her children so much. There were so many stepfathers who dotted on their own flesh and blood and left the stepchildren out in the cold. Rhett was a good stepfather.

Rhett lifted himself out of the chair, as Scarlett turned around and quickly made her way to their bedroom. Her conversation with Ashley was vivid in her mind, and this gave her strength for what she was about to do.

Before this afternoon there was no way that she would have ever thought to suggest what she was about to suggest. Not that she would have been afraid to do it, though she was a little unsure. She hadn't ever suggested something to this extent before because something this drastic had never come to mind when thinking about her relationship with Rhett. Sure, it could be somewhat uncomfortable with Rhett next to her on some nights, especially when she was thinking of Ashley. The intimacy was embarrassing in itself, but it was on the edge of mortifying to wake up next to him the next morning. But she had never been, in the sense of the word, repulsed by Rhett. She would have to admit that, on occasion, she even enjoyed waking up to Rhett's warm and caring embrace. These embraces were always most appreciated on nights when she had that awful nightmare of running lost in the fog. And how sweet he could be on those nights, when he would snuggle her close to his heart. This always had comforted her, and it was almost like he instinctively knew that it would.

But on both sides of the table, looking at all possible angles, Scarlett's treacherous heart refused to come to any conclusion but this. That in moments of the most pure ignominy with Rhett, she and Ashley would be more than comfortable. And in those few moments when Rhett could be so precious, she imagined that Ashley would be sweeter and just as comforting. Not to mention that she and Ashley would never quarrel and bicker with each other as she and Rhett did inside and outside of the bedroom.

She smiled as her mind wondered to scene after scene of what life could have been like with Ashley by her side. She and Ashley running the mill together and having beautiful blonde-haired and green-eyed children. How beautiful their children could have been.

But there really was no use in thinking about this fairy tale. She knew in her logically-trained mind that this would never be and she hated to use her time thinking about things that were of no use thinking about. But something in her heart would not let her refuse. She wanted this one thing to give to Ashley.

As she walked into their room, her resolve was even stronger than before. She was going to do this. She was going to do it for Ashley. She heard Rhett behind her and as soon as she heard the gentle click of the door behind him, she turned around lightly. She spoke quickly the first words to come to her lips.

"We need to talk."

Rhett spoke too, his laughter at her outburst mingling with his words. "So you have informed me, my dear." He walked towards a chair in the corner of the room and sat down while taking a cigar out of his pocket. Once seated, he crossed his leg over his knee and swiftly lit a match with the bottom of his shoe. After lighting the cigar and putting out the match, he turned his attention back to her. After taking a draw or two of the cigar, he leaned his elbow on the arm of the chair, his hand holding the cigar in mid-air next to his face. He pushed the chair back onto its two back legs and stared at her inquisitively.

As she watched Rhett, she slowly started to lose her nerve. Though she had never been openly receptive to Rhett's affections since they had married, she had never, in the sense of the word, rejected him either. She knew, though she tried to forget, that in some ways this marriage was indeed a business contract, and she was about to breach her end of it. She wasn't at all sure how Rhett would respond to her "proposition", and she didn't like to think of what the worst possible reaction could be.

What if he divorced her? He was just low enough to do something like that. How would she show her face in society again? Her mother and father would turn in their graves to know that their daughter had been divorced. Her family name would be as good as dirt. How would she face her sister Suellen without seeing a sneer on that unprepossessing face? How would she read the letter full of shame from her saintly sister Caureen?

Then again maybe he wouldn't care. But she knew that this wasn't true. He would care. For some reason, this kind of thing was important to a man.

And as she stood pondering all of these things, she suddenly couldn't even dredge up the nerve to even say one word to Rhett. She stood there before him for a few moments, sure that she looked a fool but couldn't seem to do anything about it. What was she to do now? She couldn't tell him what she was originally going to tell him.

'Think Scarlett!,' she thought frantically, hating that she was standing exposed in front of Rhett and afraid that he would now get the upper hand.

"Catus got vestra lingua, cara?" Rhett grinned at her with amusement and it made Scarlett want to throw up. He now knew that he had the upper hand and he was going to do everything in his power to keep it. He knew that she couldn't comprehend…whatever language that was. He was making a fool out of her. She was making a fool of herself.

"I wanted to ask you a question about…the store." She looked at him now with a little more confidence in her stance. She really had wanted to speak with him on the subject. Her profit on china and glassware had gone down drastically in the past two months, and she had wanted his advice on what to do about it.

"The store?" Rhett looked at her quizzically. For a moment he remained silent, looking at her in an all-knowing way. It was as if he knew that this was not what she had originally wanted to talk about. "Alright, what did you want to ask?" he said as he took a draw from his cigar.

She told him of her predicament and, as always, he had a solution. The kitchenware was placed farther back in the store. She should move them up closer where they could be seen and she should also put a few of the items on sale. She agreed and decided to start rearranging the store to fit this new idea the next day.

"Is that all that you needed?" he asked knowing somehow that this wasn't her reason for pulling him to the side.

She paused for a moment and thought. No, she wouldn't talk to him about it right now, but sometime soon she was going to tell him of her feelings on the matter. Hopefully, she could get her nerve up again. Not only did she want this for Ashley, but she didn't like the prospect of having another child. She didn't like it one bit.

"Yes." She answered as simply as possible.

Rhett stood up from his chair and started walking towards the door. "All right." He passed by her as he walked and stopped momentarily. He leaned down to her ear and whispered, "But when you are ready to talk about what you really wanted to talk about, come find me."

Her eyes got wide and when Rhett saw her expression, he laughed an almost jeering laugh and walked out of the room.

'That…varmint!' Scarlett thought to herself as she sat down on her bed and flung a pillow in her lap.


	2. Chapter 2

Scarlett's stomach grumbled and she looked at the clock to see that it was about suppertime. She hadn't realized that she had been in the office for so long. Since getting the advice that she had from Rhett, she had decided that, instead of just moving the kitchenware to the front, it would be a good idea to rearrange the entire store in this manner. Hearing Rhett speak about taking the things that people normally wouldn't see to the front of the store, she had reasoned that the same could work for things that people wanted to see and did see all the time up front. She was now designing a way for the more popular items to be placed in the back of the store so that people would walk all the way in and see more things that her store had to offer. She was hoping that this would improve sales in general.

She put her pencil down and leaned back against the chair with her arms stretched above her head. She knew that her mother would have never approved of this display, but she was, by now, used to ignoring that instinctive scolding implanted into her at such a young age.

After stretching her arms, she leaned forward and bent her back in an effort to loosen her stiffened muscles. It amazed her that she was just as physically tired and her body was aching just as much as if she had been working in the fields at Tara, and yet all she had done was sit at a desk and write.

She stood up and stretched again with a yawn, and slowly made her way to the door. She walked down the hallway and into the foyer. She looked up the stairs to see Rhett walking down the flight, carrying Bonnie.

"Well, you have finally emerged from the cave, my dear." He smiled in his mocking and irritatingly smug way. Rhett couldn't have chosen a more inopportune moment to tease her, because her irritation with him from that afternoon still hadn't worn away. Quite frankly, he could have said anything, and she probably would have still wanted to wring his neck.

She could feel the blood boiling in her veins, but before she could come up with some cutting remark Wade and Ella both trampled in from the parlor in a fuss. Wade had Ella's doll and was running from his crying and hysterical younger sister.

"Wade! Give-her-back." Ella screamed in between sobs. But Wade, still running with merriment at his sister's distress, only laughed at her words and teased her with little "come and get me" phrases.

Scarlett saw what was going on and rolled her eyes in irritation and frustration. Couldn't they grow up? Must they always run around annoying her? Her irritation with Rhett and the children now merged into one huge bubble and Scarlett could feel it was about to burst.

Luckily for the children and for Rhett, Mammy came into the foyer with her normal, domineering effect and put the children to silence, making Wade, with a down-turned head give a still sniffling Ella her doll back.

Scarlett could feel her "bubble" starting to diminish slightly, but then a new irritation overtook her. Mammy had walked over to Rhett with her lumbered treads, and with a smile started to go on about the new baby.

"Why, Mist' Rhett. Neva in all ma days has I seed such a preddy sort in a chile. Lardy Mist' Rhett, you thinks she gonna keep them preddy eyes." She smiled up at Rhett, the few teeth she had shining, showing the new and strong respect she now held for him.

Scarlett had noticed that Mammy had been friendlier to Rhett since Bonnie had been born, but she hadn't paid much attention to it. But now seeing Mammy smiling at Rhett, and knowing that she would probably turn to her and scold her for…something, she felt that she had lost the one ally that had been hers, and that had utterly hated Rhett. How could a stubborn woman like Mammy change her mind so suddenly? This wasn't fair. Now, no one would be her ultimate ally in this war with Rhett.

War? She had never really thought of that. It was kind of like a war between them, wasn't it? Battle after battle was constantly fought in an effort to see who could outwit the one, or make the other look foolish. She wondered if Rhett saw their marriage that way too. Did he like it that way? Frankly, she didn't care.

"Mammy, these eyes are going to be beautiful as long as she lives." He looked down at the newborn baby with more emotion in his eyes than Scarlett had ever seen in him. She felt a sting at this and a sudden irritation fell on her. 'Great Balls of Fire! Why does he think the sun rises and falls in her eyes?' she thought, the sting getting greater. She wouldn't admit that it was jealousy. 'Well, I am glad that he is so happy with this one, because it is the only one he is ever going to get.'

He was still looking at the baby and she thought that she was going to explode. She walked over to him and snatched the baby out of his hands (as best as one can snatch a baby).

"She shouldn't be down here during dinner. She should be upstairs. Here, Mammy," Scarlett handed the baby to Mammy, "take her upstairs."

Mammy took the baby, but not without giving Scarlett a look of confusion and almost annoyance at her outburst. She looked at Rhett, and he smiled, then laughed and told Mammy to go ahead and take her.

"I will come upstairs after supper and read to her before she goes to sleep for the night."

Scarlett rolled her eyes at this. "Rhett, that is ridiculous. She is a two-week-old baby, who can't even lift her head off of her pillow. How do you expect to read to her?"

"Well, my pet, I expect to read to her like you would any other child. By opening my mouth and let the words come out." Rhett smiled at her with mock innocence.

She fumed. What a fool! He knew what she meant! "You know as well as I do that she isn't going to understand a thing that you are saying. Furthermore, she isn't going to care. She is a baby. All she cares about is waking up in a warm bed and getting fed when she is hungry."

"Well, in that case my dear, we must have two newborn babes in this house." It took her a second to realize that he was speaking of her, but once the understanding of his meaning set in, her face turned red with anger.

In Rhett's face was his normal mockery, but behind his eyes anger at her careless words about their daughter was starting to flicker. Mammy took special care with the baby going up the stairs, but hurried as quickly as she could, because she could feel that one of the heated arguments between Mist' Rhett and Scarlett was about to be ignited.

Scarlett saw the mockery, but was blinded to the anger in Rhett's eyes and her bubble of anger and irritation finally burst with great force.

"Well, if we were to start calling names, I suppose that you would be on that list too. Only thing missing on this list of requirements for you is a wife in your warm bed and so far I haven't heard any complaints." Her face was red with fury and her hands were clinched at her sides, her knuckles white in their strain against her hand. She knew that everyone in the house had probably heard her flighty speech, but she was beyond caring.

Rhett only laughed at her words, which only served to make her angrier.

She stomped her foot in impotent wrath and screamed, "Stop laughing, you cad! You low-down…cad!"

"Why should you forbid me from laughing at spectacles, my darling, my dear little wife? Nothing has ever stopped you from laughing at one," he said, his laughter subsiding for a moment. "And if ever a spectacle should be laughed at it is the one you just made. Scarlett, we both know that you are a living, breathing spectacle, if a person ever saw one." He started laughing again, almost to hysterics. Laughing at the fact that she had all but revealed the truth of their marriage to everyone in the house with her outburst. And he was laughing about it. Scarlett's temper erupted again.

"Aren't you ashamed for being so, disgusting, so vulgar? If anyone should be laughing, it should be me. How can you not be ashamed of your-your vulgar requisites in life, especially when you have shining examples of what you should be always around you? Why…look at Ashley Wilkes. Melanie she can't- well…and what would you do in such a case? You would probably…"

Rhett was staring at her now. Staring at her with hard, cold eyes. So hard she stopped her discourse in shock and confusion at his sudden change in emotion. Scarlett's temper had been what had caused her to speak to Rhett in such a way, but now that her temper was relatively drained, she was left with nothing to armor her from those hard, cruel eyes. Nothing but the fact that they stood in the foyer of their home. Realizing this, she suddenly felt foolish, exposed and even afraid. Rhett didn't care if they were in the foyer, on the street or in the privacy of their bedroom. He was going to do what he wanted. And if he wanted to sock her right there (he really looked like he did), he would. Because he was Rhett. And he didn't care.

But instead of the violence she had expected, Rhett spoke. "You went to the lumber office this afternoon, didn't you?" His words were spoken in a cool and calm way, and, to a clandestine listener, they would have sounded almost polite.

Scarlett felt some courage come back to her when she realized that he wasn't going to hit her. Her stubborn will was brought into play at his question, as well, and she said with a careless tone, "What has that got to do with anything?"

Rhett smiled at her oddly and replied, "My dear, would you mind stepping into the parlor with me? I would like to discuss with you something that has been on your mind since this afternoon." He spoke as smooth as a cat with the courtesy of a real gentleman and even lavished her with a bow before offering her his arm as if they had not been at each other's throats a moment before.

She looked for an escape for a moment, and when she found none she took his arm hesitantly and Rhett started to the parlor, moving more quickly than Scarlett would have liked.

When the kitchen servant came out into the foyer to announce dinner to the Mister and Mistress of the house who had been there moments before, she only found a silent, empty hallway.


	3. Chapter 3

Scarlett followed Rhett to the room with some fear. Rhett had her wrist in his hand and was holding it with a restrained but firm grip. Scarlett could feel the same thickness in the air as she had several other times when she was with Rhett in other situations. That same restrained power, about to burst through the surface but held at bay by a strong, iron will.

Upon reaching the parlor door, Rhett dragged Scarlett into the room before him with a yank on her arm then entered himself and closed the door stoutly, and turned to her. It was dusk, and the room was dim. The sunset was coating the ornately decorated room in beautiful lilacs and maroons until they made the ostentatious parlor look like a dull and pallid box. The faint stream of light filling the room cast harsh shadows on Rhett's already chiseled features, making them seem more prominent and roguish than ever.

Scarlett looked into that hard face and tried to see what he was thinking, tried to see what was going on in his mind. But, as always, his face was a blank slate. Almost lifeless. But his eyes seemed to leap as if they were a blazing fire and they seemed to drill a hole into her mind, to her deepest and most secret thoughts. They read through her, right into her soul, and it was something that she couldn't understand and almost didn't want to. What was that old adage? Ignorance was bliss? She found this to be truer than anything in her life at the moment.

He stood there, before the door and just looked at her. It seemed that a long time had passed when he finally moved from the door and walked to the window. Still silent. Still inscrutable.

He stood there for so long without speaking she almost thought he wasn't going to. She was about to turn around and sit down when she heard him sigh. It was a heavy sigh that seemed to come from deep in his chest. When he did speak his voice was calm and placid, laced with a lazy and almost tired drawl. But still beneath, there was the leashed power, restrained but wanting, even needing so badly to break through. But the wall refused to bend.

"The sunset can be so beautiful, can't it?" Though she hadn't had a clue of what he would say first, this had not been what she would have expected. Why was it that everything he said never made any sense?

She didn't know what to say. She sat there for a moment and was about to speak but he spoke first.

"You were never one to pay any attention to scenery, were you, my pet? All you care about is whether or not it is worth something or useful to you." His words were still calm but seemed to have an underlying bitterness. She was slightly offended by his words, but not enough to say anything. His voice was calm in an unusual and dazed way that she would have never recognized in him. She was, for the first time, almost interested in what he had to say.

He finally turned to her and gave her a slight grin and continued. "You would never think that something was there just to be beautiful, would you my dear? You would never look at that same sun during the day and think that it is what gives you warmth all day, even if it is sweltering warmth." He started to walk towards her, "And you wouldn't think about the fact that it gives you the light you need to go about your day. And you would have never looked at it as I did just now. In an amazed way, as I did. To look at it in with certain adoration for its beauty and for it allowing you to see that beauty. You see the sun all day long and it gives and gives to you," he was in front of her now and though his voice was still calm his face was hard with urgency. He placed his hands on her shoulders with hard fingers. He spoke with more force as he finished what he was saying. Speaking with the restraint that had been characteristic in his demeanor the past few minutes.

"But you never acknowledge it or show that you care." He released her shoulders and turned from her to pace to the other side of the room. He got to the corner of the room and casually leaned on a chair near by.

He was silent again and Scarlett thought she would go mad with the silence. What was he talking about? She knew that he wasn't just saying those things to say them. He had something he was trying to tell her but…she just didn't understand. And once again, she didn't want to. She didn't know how to handle this Rhett. He was even more unreadable than the sardonic and caustic Rhett she was used to.

Suddenly, he laughed. To the passerby, it sounded happy enough. Joyful almost. But it was an amused laugh, with an almost contemptible quality to it.

He leaned heavily on the chair until she heard it creak under his weight, and then he slowly turned towards her and he was the Rhett she knew again. His face bore, once again, his mocking and sarcastic smile and she knew that she was going to hate whatever he said next.

"So!" he said with mocking merriment, "after your long separation you and your beloved were finally reunited today!" He laughed again. But this time it was short and harsh. "I am sure that I would have liked to see such a touching reunion. Two lovers torn apart for months. The young woman trapped in her castle by the monster of pregnancy, which was planted there by the evil and despotic lord of the castle. Oh, how glorious a reunion! One you could base fairy tales on! The honorable and wooden-headed warrior and his hard and unscrupulous princess. What a scene!" He laughed harshly again, and she finally found her tongue.

Her brow went together and she spoke quickly. "I would like to see if you will ever be anything but a cad." The last word was barked out at him with great force.

He laughed again, but this time it was more quiet and cynical. "My dear, even if there was a side of me that had not the slightest touch of my cad-like qualities, you would never see it. You never see the things that aren't right under your nose."

She didn't like the way he was looking at her. "What business would it be of yours if I had seen Ashley today at the mill? I am not your slave to be commanded, Rhett Butler! I shall do as I please and go where I please and there is no one who will stop me." She looked at him with a defiance she hadn't felt in a long time.

He grinned at her mockingly and said, "So, you admit that is was Ashley that you have seen today! And all this time I thought it was your lovely store manager!" She started to breathe with harsh and short breaths. "What business is it of mine? Well, I suppose only a husband's concerning his wife. Would that be considered classified enough for you, my sweet and defiant little child? I suppose that you can see whom you please when you please, but that will never change the fact that I will eventually find out about it. And I will not keep silent about the things you do that I dislike like your past two cowering, shrinking husbands."

"I will see who I want when I want and why should you care…" He interrupted her.

"I have never had any doubt that you would do what you want when you want. As for my caring, I would call it more curiosity than anything. After all, it is a rather interesting love affair, isn't it? Two people loving each other as you two do, and yet there has never been anything - how did you put it once, my dear? - anything wrong between you? What do you do in a relationship that is in such a restricted state? You must have some secret, loving glance that only you, together share. Or perhaps, a word or phrase that is only understood by you both?"

His face seemed to be getting harder as he went on. He was getting too close to the truth for comfort and she was afraid that he had already realized her secret gift that she had wanted to give to Ashley.

"It must be hard for you two to be married to separate people and still be faithful to each other." He said with a thoughtfully caustic look. "Though we both already know that it is relatively easy for him to be faithful to you, isn't it? With his wife in so convenient a state." He started to walk toward her again and she felt her body, as if willed on its own, starting to inch its way back farther from him as he got closer.

"But you, my dear! How do you stay faithful when married to a wretch like me? How can your wonderfully honorable Mr. Wilkes sleep at night knowing that you are being defiled by such a rogue as I?" She stared at him in horror now, for those were almost the exact same words that Ashley had spoken that morning. Something about Rhett coarsening her fineness and not being able to bare the thought of him touching her.

She finally noticed that Rhett's eyes now held that omniscient look at her expression and once again he seemed to read her thoughts. His face got hard and his eyes turned as cold and they had been out in the foyer. "So our fanciful and scrupulous Mr. Wilkes has made his dislikes known to you, has he?" She was still moving backwards but had now reached the wall and braced against it as if it would suck her in if she pressed hard enough. He trapped her between the wall and himself once he reached her, his hands placed on her arms above her elbow, squeezing her tightly.

He was speaking in low and heavy tones now. No mockery or sarcasm was even hinted at in his words. "And you had decided that if Ashley wasn't pleased, then you weren't either. And you were going to do something about it." He smiled maliciously now. "Sacrifice for the cause, as it were." He laughed low in his throat.

"What a double-minded little wench you are, my dear! So willing to sacrifice for your precious Ashley! And yet just about a year ago when you married me, and you knew you had your paws on my money, it never occurred to you that our contract, of sorts, was making you wane in your refinements." He was suddenly sarcastic again. "I always thought that you were a decided woman Scarlett! I would expect better from you, my darling little cat!"

His face was hard again and he looked at her with red-hot eyes. He bent down over her and he was so close to her face that his face was now a blur before her eyes. He spoke with bitterness and longing.

"If you wanted to give him the entire banquet table, couldn't you have at least given me the crumbs!?" Suddenly he kissed her, just as he had the day when he proposed. Just as on that lazy, humid night Atlanta fell, on the road to Rough and Ready. He was kissing her with that same possessiveness that she had never been able to resist. In the whole time that they had been married, he had never kissed her like this! It was probably a good thing. She couldn't keep her bearings when he kissed her like this. She always felt as though she were going to faint if he didn't stop. She always felt she would go insane if he did. When he kissed her like this, her head was full of contradiction. Stop. No, don't. Faint. No.

Ashley!

No…Rhett…

She could feel her arms wrapping themselves around his neck as if pulled there by some force that was not her own. She pulled him closer to herself and knew that she was now, willingly and of her own accord, kissing him back. Much in the same way he was kissing her.

But as soon as she pulled her arms from his shoulders to rest her hands against his cheeks, he pulled away and slightly stumbled backward in an effort to get away from her. She involuntarily whispered at the absence of his warmth, "No."

He stared at her a moment, with a longing she hadn't ever seen in him before. He was breathing heavily and he looked almost astonished when she spoke. She thought that at her whisper, he was going to kiss her again but she heard the kitchen help out in the foyer saying that supper was ready.

Rhett looked to the door then back at her and his face seemed to be wiped clean of all the expression she had seen in it just a moment before. It was so unreadable now and she immediately began to doubt what she had seen in his eyes just moments before.

"Supper is ready. Let's not make the children wait to eat." He exited the room, leaving the door ajar for her to exit as well.

She was left feeling confused. She knew something significant had just happened between them, but she didn't know what it was.

It was now more than ever that she wished she were more analytical than she was. She would do anything to know what Rhett had thought about the events of just a few moments ago.

She would do anything if she knew how she felt about them.


	4. Chapter 4

Several months had gone by with ease. Sometimes Scarlett thought about the fact that just a few short months had passed since her third child had been born. And it was quickly turning out that Eugenia Victoria, now called Bonnie Blue, was becoming Scarlett's favorite child; for she was such a pretty child and people always adored her and acknowledged the fact. This was the main reason she liked Bonnie so much. In people admitting that she was a beautiful child, they unpremeditatedly complimented her. And she had always loved compliments.

Bonnie was growing quickly as well. She had now grown big enough that Mammy had deemed it proper for her to wear a little dress instead of the baby gowns she had been wearing since infancy. And it seemed that every time a new dress was bought, it was just as quickly discarded or given away because it was too little. Rhett seemed to care little about this, as did everyone else in the house. He dotted upon the infant as if she were a queen and he, her slave. Every spare moment he had was spent with her, and it irritated Scarlett that she was never able to have a moment alone with the child without Rhett being there.

But Rhett's attentions to Bonnie hadn't fazed the two older children in the slightest. In fact, they liked how Rhett pampered Bonnie. Because Bonnie spent most of her hours awake in the nursery with Wade and Ella, they got to spend more time with their Uncle Rhett with the new baby around. Their pleasure in this attention Rhett bestowed on the baby was only magnified when, in Rhett's fits of mollycoddling Bonnie with new gowns, rattles and bears, Wade and Ella always got a new trinket or toy. This they liked very much.

And Rhett did coddle Bonnie. Any chance he got he bought the newborn a toy or some other knickknack even if she hadn't an idea as to what it was or how it worked. Scarlett and the rest of the household had thought that it was just that new-father feeling in him that was causing such spoiling. But when a huge box was delivered to their home one afternoon just before lunch, containing a stuffed elephant as tall as Scarlett and almost as wide as Mammy, Scarlett thought that he was taking it a little too far. Mammy shared Scarlett's sentiment and let Rhett know when he arrived home that evening. He took the scolding well, his head hung low as if in shame for his actions. But, somehow, he managed to make Mammy reconsider her outburst?, howbeit reluctantly and still with disapproval for his conduct.

But if Mammy had opted to stay silent, nothing would have been said. Because Scarlett wouldn't have said anything. Ever since that evening a few months before, she and Rhett had barely spoken. Apart from a casual "hello…how are you" their conversations had come to be nonexistent. And Scarlett missed the comfortable way in which they used to commune. Though she would never let a soul know, and especially not Rhett.

He didn't even hold her at night anymore as he used to.

In fact, he was rarely in the room by the time she fell asleep. And he was never there when she awoke the next morning. It seemed as if they both avoided each other at all costs, and in a lot of ways it was easy for them to do so. Rhett was often out doing…what ever it was he did. And Scarlett was either at one of her mills or at the store. Perhaps one of the reasons that she never talked with him was because she really didn't see him very much. And deep down, she missed him.

There were many days when she would come home from the store or the mills, especially irritated with the manager or the books and she so wished that he would come in the room and ask her what was wrong as he used to. She would even endure him telling her that she was a fool for being upset about such a trivial things and even allow him to laugh at her. But he never did.

She really missed him at night when she woke from her dreadful dream. She would awaken on her own, and know that she had been thrashing about for she would be sweating and the sheets would be in a tangle around her legs, but he would still be lying next to her, seemingly fast asleep. When she awoke this way, she felt colder and emptier than when she was dreaming and she would silently cry herself to sleep. But Rhett would never move. 'He must really hate me now', she thought over and over when observing his conduct.

Where at one time she could have cared less about what Rhett thought of their marriage or of her, somehow in the few short months of silence between them she had come to care. And why this was she didn't know, and she didn't particularly like thinking about it.

Maybe it was because of their encounter in the parlor. Her mind often went back to that evening. How he seemed to be so emotional about her and Ashley, almost passionate. Then he had kissed her. He had only kissed her like that twice before that time, and on all three occasions she had felt something. What that something was, she didn't know. Maybe it was…she didn't know.

Perhaps it was because now he seemed not to care. Not that he seemed to really care before but…Ahh! This was why she hated to think about it. She always came to the same dead end with every theory. Somehow, she knew that she couldn't come to a conclusion because of so many unanswered questions between her and Rhett and inside of herself. But she wasn't brave enough to seek answers from Rhett for fear of his jesting, nor clever enough to answer them herself.

Or maybe she just didn't want those questions answered, for fear of what the answers would be.

Nevertheless, her life went on. And it seemed to pass by her more quickly than it ever had. Perhaps it was because this new South had a hustled and quick pace such as she had never known. Or perhaps, perhaps it was because she was getting older. She didn't know. But time was passing, and with great advance. So fast that when the month of June came she hadn't realized that it was the anniversary of her father's death.

Scarlett was reminded of this when she was walking down the street and heard in the distance the sound of Irish voices straining together in the tune of "Peg in a Low-Backed Car". This song always reminded her of her father and when she heard it and she realized it was indeed the anniversary of his death, she could barely control the tears that came to her eyes. She rushed home quickly, but by the time she reached the house her need to cry had ceased. But she could still hear the song ringing in her head, even as the night progressed.

She had eaten supper in a hurry and went to bed early and fell into a restless sleep, only to wake up just a few hours later. The song still rang in her ears, and all she could see when she closed her eyes was her father, riding atop his prized stud and yelling out to her mother, 'Look, Ellen! Watch me take this one!' And these visions led to her mother and memories of a past that she had been trying to block out for years. So many wonderful memories that she couldn't bear to think about because the pain was too great.

She sat up quickly and almost jumped out of the bed into the dark room. She had no fear of waking Rhett, or anyone else for that matter. She just had to get these thoughts and memories out of her head! She couldn't take it! She needed a drink. That was just the thing to take her mind off of the pain of remembering the past.

She quickly wrapped her dressing gown around her, clutching it to her middle as she exited her room and walked down the hall to descend the stairs. She entered the dining room, not even bothering to light a candle. There was enough moonlight coming through the window that she could see well enough, and didn't care about anything but abolishing those hurtful thoughts.

She quickly approached the cabinet where Rhett kept his liquor, and picked up the first decanter she touched. She didn't know what kind of drink it was and she was beyond caring. Her deft hands quickly removed the top and poured an ample amount of the dark liquid into a glass. With an efficient hand, she downed the liquid in one gulp, only to cough most of it back up.

She heard a soft, but distinct chuckle inside of the room and at the sound of it she nearly dropped her cup.

"I'm guessing that you weren't excepting Bourbon, my dear." It was Rhett. He chuckled again.

She looked in the direction of the laugh, and saw the small flame of a match flickering, which brightened once the flame met the end of the ragged candle. The room filled with sudden light and Scarlett's eyes had trouble adjusting. The new light was definitely not the only reason she was having trouble with her sight at the moment.

She squinted at the light.

"What?" she said with some irritation.

Rhett started to walk towards her and took the cup from her hands. He leaned over and reached into the cabinet to pull out a flask of brandy and poured it into the cup and handed it to her. "Bourbon. The drink that you coughed up so graciously. You were looking for brandy. Not nearly as strong." She took the drink from his hand and downed it with practiced skill. Once she had set the glass on the table again and had looked up into Rhett's face, she knew that he had noticed for his eyes shined with amusement.

"My! How nicely you take your brandy, my dear. We will make a gentleman out of you, yet." He smiled at her with sarcasm, but his eyes held no malice.

She looked into his face and saw that he was teasing her, and it warmed her. It had been so long since he had. But the warmth faded quickly and it gave way when she thought again of the reason why she had headed for the bottle with such urgency. The bourbon and brandy must have made her acutely aware of her feelings, and she burst into a sudden tears.

She sat there for a moment, leaning on the table, sobbing. Then without warning, Rhett's arms came swiftly around her. When she was fully pressed against him, she started to cry harder. He held her close for what seemed to be a long time. He patted her shoulder with care and murmured soft utterances in her ear that she didn't comprehend, if they were meant to be comprehended. When her cries finally started to subside, Rhett led her to a chair and sat her down. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and gave it to her. She wondered for a moment, as she wiped her eyes, why it was that he always seemed to have a handkerchief. She voiced her question aloud.

"Rhett, why is it that you always have a handkerchief when I need it?" she smiled, amusement slightly hanging off her words.

Rhett laughed softly at her question. "Well, my dear, it really has nothing to do with you." He leaned down close to her face and whispered. "When I was a boy, my father had a dog that was like a second son to him. But when I got around him, I couldn't stop sneezing. My mother, for a long time, just thought that it was a chronic cold. She even called the doctor several times in alarm for my health and well-being. Well, our doctor was a fool, because when I was about fifteen I realized that when I was around the dog, I sneezed and coughed, and when I wasn't around the dog, I didn't. It ended up that all those years of tonics and medicines only amounted to one simple thing. An allergy. So carrying a handkerchief got to be a sort of habit of mine. I always have a handkerchief somewhere nearby." He smiled, and she did too. She realized with a start that this was the first time Rhett had ever revealed anything to her about his childhood. But she was still too distressed to linger on this fact. She sniffed a little, as she felt a few stray tears running down her cheeks

"There now, darling," he said as he took the handkerchief from her hands and wiped her eyes himself. "What is it that has you so upset?"

She looked at him and upon seeing the understanding written in his generally emotionless eyes, she told him about her father and the importance of that day. Poured out to him how much she missed her father. Then she told him of her problems with dealing with her past and the memories. Spoke of her mother. Even reminisced on how Tara had once been. And somehow, telling Rhett all of these things, lead to her telling him of the problems she had been having in just the past few months. From the smallest, trivial problems, to some of the troubles that had her mind so boggled she didn't know what to do about them.

She didn't know how long they sat there while she poured out her heart, with Rhett's hand holding hers gently in his own. Several hours at least. And the whole time Rhett listened, and listened, with no sign of impatience at her prattle. His eyes never lost their understanding and, dare she say, caring look that they had held from the beginning. He was once again her confidant, as he had been when she had just started her business and was still married to Frank. But this time it was different. This time she didn't just share her fiscal burdens but her inner burdens. The burdens that she hadn't spoken to anyone about and that she didn't like to think about. She didn't understand it, but something in the way he looked at her and held her hand, gave her the courage to face those beautiful and awful memories and the pain that accompanied them.

When she was finally done, and had exhausted all of her problems away, the faintest hints of morning could be seen at the horizon. Scarlett could barely keep her eyes opened. She was so tired from her soul baring and tears that when she and Rhett finally stood to go to their room; she had to lean against Rhett as they approached the stairs. Once they reached the stairs, instead of laboring up the stairs together, Rhett swept Scarlett into his arms with ease and carried her with little trouble up the flight of stairs.

Once they reached the bedroom, Rhett placed Scarlett on her side of the bed and covered her with the quilt. She looked at him with appreciation written clearly in her eyes. This was a rare, almost nonexistent, moment between the two of them. They were used to the battling and bickering. Never letting the other one get inside their armor, to their weak point. But tonight all guards had been let down on both sides, and Scarlett spoke without fear of teasing or rejection.

"Rhett, I don't know what I would do without you sometimes." She blinked sleepily, but had a small grin on her lips.

She heard his small intake of breath at her words, and felt the slight tightening of his hand on the quilt. For a moment she thought she even felt him reach for her, but he didn't.

She heard him laugh softly as he said, "Well, I suppose you would go your whole life choking on bourbon instead of drinking brandy."

In the past few months he had given her his courteous peck on the check when he would arrive home. But had taken no further advances. Tonight, he leaned over her, and for the first time in months kissed her gently on her lips. He lingered there for a moment, just long enough that she was able to kiss him back. Then he raised his head to meet her eyes, and she smiled a genuine smile. Albeit a tired one. Rhett brought his hand to her cheek and stroke it once before turning around to head for his side of the bed.

Scarlett was asleep before he even lifted the covers.


	5. Chapter 5

Scarlett awoke the next morning feeling unusually happy. She felt as if a load had been taken off her chest. The moment her mind became fully awake she felt a sudden giddiness and relief that she hadn't in months. She and Rhett had talked last night, and she just knew that the horrible and dividing silence in their home between themselves was at an end. And her suspicions were confirmed when she looked next to her, and saw Rhett still sound asleep. He was still here. This was the first time in months that she had awakened next to him. She smiled a tired smile and looked at him for a moment.

He was a cad. She smiled wickedly. She was so glad that everything was all right again. She had her best friend and most trusted confidant back. She got up slowly, so as not to wake him. When she was out of the bed, she looked at him to make sure he hadn't stirred. He hadn't. 'Goodness', Scarlett thought, 'He must be tired. He is usually such a light sleeper'. She went into her dressing room and picked up one of her dressing gowns and started downstairs for some breakfast. She had eaten so little the night before because of her distress over Pa that she was about to starve.

Scarlett arrived downstairs and took breakfast, and started back up the stairs to get dressed. Once she entered the room, she immediately saw Rhett. He was leaning over in front of her vanity, fixing his cravat. He heard her enter and without looking away from the mirror, asked, "Did you have a good night's rest?"

She smiled slightly at his question. "Yes."

"No more nightmares?" He looked at her seriously.

"No." She smiled a little wider.

Rhett smiled too. "I was planning on taking the children to the park. It has been a while since we last went. Do you want to come along?" He was still smiling and his eyes were so kind. He hadn't treated her so sweetly in so long.

She became excited at his proposition, but restrained it somehow. But Rhett noticed how her eyes sparkled when she spoke.

"Yes, I would like that. When do we leave?"

"About an hour. That will give you enough time to dress?"

"Oh, yes. That is plenty of time." She instantly headed for her dressing room.

By the time she was ready, it had been almost exactly one hour. She knew that the children were probably already waiting downstairs with Rhett. Before heading downstairs, she instinctively looked in the mirror and pinched her cheeks. When she walked outside of her room, she couldn't help but think that her normally very dark and solemn home seemed a little brighter this morning. She smiled when she thought that it was really just that she was happier this morning, and as she walked down her grand staircase she couldn't help but feel like she was floating.

She heard the children and Rhett before she saw them in the parlor. Wade was enthusiastically retelling some event that had taken place between himself and Beau, and when she walked into the room she laughed outright when she saw Rhett lying on the floor with Wade straddling over, on top of him. Rhett had a look of mock fear on his face and Wade was laughing.

"Then Aunt Melly took the gun-but really it wasn't a gun, it was a broom- and she pointed it to Beau's heart and said 'Lee, this is the last straw for you'. But then Beau pushed her off, and took his gun-it was a cane-and said 'I don't think so, Sherman. You aren't burning Atlanta today!' "Rhett laughed and said.

"Did he push her off like this?" Rhett instantly flipped Wade over him and laid him on his back on the floor, careful not to hurt him with the landing. Wade laughed out loud at this and Ella instantly chirped in, yelling, "Oh, me too, Uncle Rhett!" She reached her little hands up to him and he laughed and took her and did the same to her. A shrill laugh came from her lips and Bonnie protested at the noise with a small cry. Rhett, still laughing, stood and walked over to Bonnie, murmuring something to her about feeling left out.

At that point Scarlett walked into the parlor. Rhett's head was bent over the baby, and when he heard her approaching he looked up at her and smiled a mocking smile.

"Ready?" He said it as if to say, 'Finally, it took you long enough'.

She couldn't help but smile too. She was too happy today to get upset or stung by his mockery. "Yes."

"I ordered the open carriage for us so that we could enjoy the day on our ride there." Rhett said.

"Well…why don't we walk?" Scarlett suggested.

Rhett looked at her in disbelief. The park was about three miles away. "Are you sure? You know that walking there means we have to walk back." He looked at her, waiting for her answer.

"Well…we could get them to bring the carriage out to bring us home. Oh, please Rhett! It is so pretty out, and I want to walk." She put her hands together as she pleaded.

Rhett laughed and said, "Oh, alright. Come on children. Your crazy mother says we are walking." The children got very excited when they learned this information.

They were the picture of the perfect family. Wade and Ella were walking ahead of Scarlett and Rhett. Rhett was pushing Bonnie's stroller and Scarlett had her arm hooked through his. The day was beautiful and Scarlett felt content. She took a deep breath.

"Oh, Rhett! Isn't it a beautiful day? I remember days like this from when I was at Tara. I used to love days like this." It surprised her how easily she was just able to recall her past. Usually it hurt to remember. She knew that the reason she could now recall it as a bittersweet memory was because of the conversation that she and Rhett had had the night before.

At this thought, she looked at him with gratitude and, as they walked and he looked straight ahead, she kissed him on the cheek. Rhett looked at her with surprise clearly written in his eyes and his gaze quickly swept over her face to see if the reason for the unexplained display of affection was written there.

She smiled at him and said, "Thank you, Rhett. For talking to me last night."

Rhett simply smiled at her and turned back to face the road, still smiling.

The walk, though long, was a pleasant one. Scarlett even endured the prattle of the children. And she noticed that the more she let them talk, the more they did talk.

Ella seemed to speak more than Wade. Telling her about her dolls, and about her friends. Eventually it got to the point that the young child was just rambling random things to her and everyone, and sometimes just to herself. Scarlett had never seen the girl so outspoken before, and it was a surprise.

Ella talked until they finally got to the park. The carriage was already waiting for them. They had sent lunch with the driver and told him to hold it for them. Wade and Ella instantly started chattering about how hungry they were upon seeing the basket of food. Rhett laughed at them and told them that they would eat in due time. But they would not be silenced.

"Please, Uncle Rhett! Please!" Both the children came up to their stepfather's side, their hands clasped together and their innocent eyes pleading with him to let them have their own way.

"Oh, alright." They cheered. "Now, you are sure? What if you get hungry later?" Rhett asked inquisitively.

"Well, then we will eat again!" Ella said with her tiny, shrill voice. Rhett and Scarlett both laughed at this.

Rhett retrieved the basket from the carriage and brought it over to the place that the children had chosen to sit. They had chosen a spot that was right in the middle of the park, with a huge oak tree to rest underneath for shade. Rhett took the blanket that was in the basket and laid it out right next to the tree, so that Scarlett could sit with Bonnie in the shade. As soon as Rhett had the blanket laid out, the children sat down ready to eat. They were still chattering. They were so excited about the family outing that they were having, they couldn't seem to stop. Wade, in spite of his teaching in etiquette, was even talking with his mouth full of food. Scarlett softly scolded him. But when he did it again, she didn't say anything. She couldn't help but think of the days when he had had no food to eat. And she thought how she wouldn't have minded if he had talked with his mouth full then, just as long as his mouth was full. When these thoughts entered her head, she decided to let him be.

They talked about so many things. Scarlett didn't say much. She just sat there, with Bonnie in her arms, watching Rhett interact with her children. She knew that she would probably never relate to them as he did, and it stung her a little. But there was little to be done about it. And Scarlett refused to dwell on things that were of no use dwelling on.

Wade started recalling a time when he and Rhett had gone to New Orleans, and they had gone to a park there. He told them of every game played and every tree climbed. Then Ella piped in with a story about how she and Rhett had gone to a play just a few weeks earlier. After she retold every aspect of the play (this disappointed Scarlett a little because she had wanted to see that play), she and Wade talked about the many times that they had come to the park with Rhett.

Ella turned to Scarlett and spoke to her directly for the first time since they had been seated for lunch. "Mother, I wish you would come with us to the park more. You shouldn't be so busy and come with us." She nodded matter-of-factly.

Scarlett smiled slightly, not knowing what to say. "Well, I'm not that busy and you all have never asked me before."

Ella looked suddenly confused and looked at Rhett then back at Scarlett. "But Uncle Rhett said that you couldn't come last time because you were too busy. He said that every time when we said you should come." Ella sat there looking at Scarlett.

But Scarlett wasn't looking at Ella. She was looking at Rhett. And he was looking at her. But there was no emotion in his face. His bland mask was in perfect place, refusing to reveal any aspect of the secret man within. She was sure that her face was contorted with some sort of disgusted look.

Rhett suddenly stood up. "Wade, Ella, I think it's time that we pack up. We should be heading back." Both children nodded silently, noticing the change in atmosphere. They got up at what seemed to be a very slow pace and started helping Rhett to collect the things from off the blanket, placing it back in the basket.

Rhett was bent over, retrieving the plates when he spoke to Scarlett. "You should go ahead and take Bonnie to the carriage. We will be over in a moment." He spoke without even bothering to look at her.

"Gladly." She grinded out the words and stood, less careful with the baby than normal.

Once they finished cleaning their lunch site, they all climbed into the carriage and started for home in silence. Rhett had seated himself on the opposite side of the carriage, facing Scarlett. She kept her head down and looked at Bonnie the whole ride home. But she could feel his eyes on her. Once his knee slightly touched hers, and she jerked from her position so quickly that she disturbed Bonnie.

Once they reached the house and they were inside, Scarlett handed Bonnie directly to Mammy and headed up the stairs. She heard Rhett telling the children to go play outside. She was at the landing about to start up the second flight of stairs when she heard him call her. She ignored him and kept climbing the stairs. She saw him from the corner of her eye taking the steps three, maybe even four at a time. She started to walk up faster, but it was of no use. By the time she reached the top of the stairs where she could really start running, he had caught up with her and had caught her arm and had turned her to face himself.


	6. Chapter 6

"We need to talk," Rhett said immediately as Scarlett jerked her arm out of his grasp.

"Why don't you go tell the children? I am sure that they would be much more interested in anything that you have to say than I would ever be!" Scarlett lunged toward him and pointed down the stairway to the assumed place where the children would be as she spoke in an almost whispered tone.

She jerked her arm free and stalked towards their bedroom. Wiping his hand down his face in a gesture of exasperation, Rhett started after her.

"Scarlett…" he said, his voice tinged with amusement. As he spoke the door slammed, nearly knocking him in the face. He looked heavenward, trying his hardest not to laugh, but he couldn't keep the smile that formed to his unwilling cheeks from emerging.

"Pet-", the laughter in his voice was heard clearly through the expression. He used this name, knowing that it was the one name that he used for her that she hated with more fervor than that with which she hated him.

Scarlett was seething. She had been mad at Rhett before, but this was different. She didn't want to think about the difference, but her mind unwillingly knew what the change was. Rather than being insulted she was…hurt?

She couldn't think about this. She couldn't think of things that she didn't understand or she would go crazy.

The night before she had thought that, somehow, she and Rhett had waved a sort of white flag. That they were now friends, rather than enemies. That this "war" she had imagined them to be in could, in fact, come to an end and they could live in the comfortable communion that she had longed after over the past months. Years. But she had been wrong. And Rhett's little comment to the children had proven just that. He didn't care about her. In fact, it was obvious that he hated her! Hated her enough that he wanted to steal her children away from her by…by…

Well, she couldn't say that he was lying. She probably would have never accepted an invitation to go out to the park with her children. Why go out with the children when you have servants to do it for you? Especially when you have two mills to run and a store to manage. A person can only do so much! Why waste time on such trivial things? She admitted to herself, reluctantly, that the only reason she had accepted today was because of her unusually high spirits.

And her thought-to-be new comradeship with Rhett.

So much for truces…

Standing there in the doorway of their bedroom, she remembered with clarity all of the reproachful things that he had done to her. That he had said to her. She remembered every jib, every hateful, sarcastic stare. Every loathsome action.

And she remembered her resolve from months earlier…

Only now, Ashley was not the motivation for her wanting to be away from Rhett. It was Rhett himself. She couldn't bear the thought of him lying next to her every night when she knew that he hated her so much. She couldn't let him be with her like a husband was with a wife anymore.

And as soon as the thought entered her mind, she acted on it.

She swung the door open to peer at him through hate-filled eyes. She was still clinging to the door with a merciless grip and was leaning forward as if trying to hold herself up. "Do not call me that! I am not your pet nor will I ever be. And I am not your wife." Her tone was gradually getting louder. "I want you out! Out!" She walked further into the room and walked directly into his closet. She instantly started to remove his clothes from the shelves and walked back into the room to causally toss them on the colossal bed.

"Scarlett…" His voice was filled with laughter and tolerance. It was the voice a mother would use with a child throwing a temper-tantrum.

She turned to him after relieving herself of the load of clothing in her grasp. His face was disbelieving and fixed into a mask of indifference and amusement. Her arms clung to her sides. She was shaking. When she spoke her voice was cold and uneven. But entirely decided.

"I want you out," she repeated. She was surprised at the calmness of her resolved tone.

Rhett's face sudden dropped. All the mirth and mocking in his voice and face was gone. His face registered astonishment. Scarlett felt a strange and uncontrollable surge of triumph rush through her veins when she saw how her actions had affected him. She had never seen him so speechless, so shocked. In just a few words, she had conveyed his opaque façade to that of a flabbergasted mime.

The sickening exhilaration of triumph continued to wash through her as she continued to pull clothes from his closet and throw them on the bed. Every time she saw his face, still astounded, staring at her as she pulled his belongings out of the closet and placed them on _her _bed the triumph jolted her, almost to the point of making her physically shudder.

She soon finished pulling all of his things from the closet. Rhett was still rooted in the same place as he had been throughout the whole affair. He had never moved, his face never changed. She placed the last stack of clothing on the bed and turned to stare at him. Defiance and confidence unlike any that she had ever felt in his presence enveloped her. He continued to look at her, his emotionless mask still lifted; his face still the same.

She studied him in a way that she never had before. He almost looked like a different person without that cynical smirk that lined his lips. His eyes were unguarded and mirrored the look on his face. But there was something more in his eyes. There was shock, yes, but there was…pain? She had to look away. Whatever it was in his eyes, it burned. Seared. She would never forget it. Only those who had experienced the feeling themselves could fully understand it. It was too deep, too hard to look at. It was almost enough to pull her from her half-crazed tirade.

She looked at the clock on the wall. It was late afternoon by now. She didn't want to be here anymore. She needed to get out. Turning to the bed again, she swiftly swiped her arm across the clothes, deftly scattering a good portion of them to the floor.

She practically ran to her closet to change to go to the store. The mill. Anywhere! Anywhere but here.

She didn't call Mammy. She didn't want to see her now. Mammy would no doubt strangle her for what she was doing. Lecture her on her mother's teachings and tell her that she wasn't being a lady. She didn't care anymore.

Had she ever?

She was feeling lightheaded as she entered the closet, and realized that it was because she was breathing as if she had been running a race. She needed to get her corset off before she passed out. She tore the dress off, not even caring when she heard the resounding rip of the seam in one of the arms. The heavy fabric fell to the floor, and she instantly started to pull at the corset cords on her back. Straining and struggling, she was able to loosen the offending piece of cloth enough to slide it down her hips. It, too, hit the floor. She instantly breathed in deeply, feeling her lungs expand in relief.

She frantically searched for a dress that she wouldn't need the corset for. She found a simple cotton dress near the back of the closet. It was a dress that was not at all something that she typically wore. It was a simply deep green, with a single plaid band of cloth across the middle. There were buttons in the front and on the back that made the dress a little more ostentatious than most of its kind. She vaguely remembered Rhett buying her the dress. She remembered her disgust at the sight of it and also remembered when she had placed it in the back of the closet, where she believed that it belonged.

Ironic that it fit her perfectly without her corset. But then she remembered that Rhett had never liked corsets. Especially on her…

She quickly finished putting on the dress, and walked out of the closet to her vanity. She reached for her gloves and hat. After putting on her hat and while pulling on her gloves she turned towards the doorway. Rhett was still standing there. Only now he was leaning against the doorway, and his emotionless mask had been carefully constructed again. His arms were crossed over his chest and his stance was casual enough to the on-looker. One more observant, however, would notice how his eyes still shimmered with the dangerous and burning light. One would also notice that his crossed arms seemed to be more a shield or barrier against an attack and his weight against the doorway was more for support than comfort.

"I am going out." She spoke in a monotone voice. She motioned to the bed. "You should be able to move to a spare room in the time that I will be gone." She had finished putting on her gloves. Grabbing her bag, she headed for the door.

Rhett was still standing in the same place, but there was enough room for Scarlett to try and squeeze her way out. Prancing her way to the door, she spoke again as she carelessly passed him. "Don't wait uuu—!"

She was abruptly cut off when Rhett's arm caught her roughly around the waist, thrusting her back into the room. He swiftly closed the door with his foot. The sound of the wood crashing against the jam echoed through the room. She was shoved violently against the now tightly shut door, Rhett leaning against her. He forced his face into the crown of her head, and his hands in her hair. He assaulted her head, his body moving ever closer to her. Massaging savagely with his hands and desperately nuzzling with the tip of his nose. He was breathing raggedly and when he spoke his voice was coarse and broken. His breath on her head was hot, as was his body against hers. He was everywhere. All around her.

"No…" he said roughly, desperately. "I am not leaving Scarlett. And neither are you." His hands slid from her hair to her neck, trailing down her shoulders and arms until they reached her hands. Threading her fingers through his, he caught them up around his neck before tracing down her arms again, to her shoulders. Something in the way he touched her made her breathing go erratic. Perhaps it was the way she could feel his breath, heavy and hot, on her face as he drew her closer. Perhaps it was the way in which she felt his fingers tracing over her clothed skin. As his hands reached her waist in their descent and headed for her hips, she looked down to examine his touch. As his hands moved down she watched as his fingers weaved over the cloth, struggling to feel her warmth. It was as if his whole hands endeavored to feel every bow, every curve, every arch of her body. It did the most unusual things to her stomach. It made it hard to breathe.

It was then that she noticed that the ragged breathing wasn't just coming from Rhett. It was coming from her as well. That Rhett wasn't alone in the battle to bring their bodies closer, but she was straining to feel him close to her as well.

He traced from her crown to her forehead with the tip of his nose and paused for a moment, breathing at a quick, staccato tempo. Scarlett bent her head forward involuntarily, nuzzling the side of his neck and causing him to shudder. Rhett moaned softly before rolling his hands up her back then back down as he pulled her closer.

"Ahh…Scarlett." He whispered as he dipped his head down to kiss her neck. His breath was hot and moist on her neck and caused her pulse to jump. She pulled her head from his neck so that she could see his face. She needed to touch him. The hand that gripped the back of his neck quickly and recklessly moved to trace the lines of his face. She traced from his ear to his forehead, down the tip of his nose to his lips in a frantic motion. When her gloved hand reached his lips, he opened his mouth and grabbed the tip of her finger with his teeth. She stopped breathing for a moment and everything in the room seemed to still. Slowly he pulled until only the cloth was in between his teeth-pulling, pulling- until the glove slid off her hand. He let the glove drop from his mouth to the ground. Rhett stared at her for a moment with a look of gentle longing that was completely contrary to the violent passion that he had just been exhibiting moments before. Her hand still suspended between their faces. Slowly, almost cautiously, he leaned his face forward to kiss the tip of her finger, bringing it between his lips.

Her breathing started up again. Heavy and frenzied. Rhett's eyes raged again. Burning intensely like two molten pits of onyx. His head dipped and his mouth roughly captured her lips, instantly molding them to his mouth. His tongue instantly darted out, pushing its way into her mouth. She moaned into the kiss, pushing and pulling against him. Struggling to get closer, never able to get close enough. As soon as their lips had met, a fire instantly started inside of her. From her lips the flames licked towards her throat, her chest, her stomach. And the burning wouldn't stop! Rhett was everything, hot and the fire in her was hot. She was on fire, burning…burning…

And she didn't care if this fire was ever put out…

Rhett's lips moved skillfully over hers. He deepened the kiss, slowing his strokes to a devastatingly slow pace. Her legs were starting to shake and she didn't think that she was going to be able to stay standing on her own for much longer. With every renewed assault of her mouth, the fire would rush to the pit of her stomach, almost to the point of pain. Her knees were buckling now, but Rhett's arms held her up. He tightened his grip on her and suddenly she was off the ground. Perhaps she was floating. But no, she knew she was in Rhett's arms because at the moment she could feel everything that was _him_. Right now, she knew that if even the smallest muscle in his body simply shuddered she would feel it. And revel in it.

Rhett walked stiffly to the cluttered bed, stepping on and over his clothes that she had strewn all over the floor. Holding her up with one arm he quickly swiped his arm across the bed, effectively scattering the rest of his wardrobe across the floor with the rest of his belongings. He laid her down on the bed, hovering just above her as his mouth started to move from her lips to her cheeks, her eyes, her neck… Now that his mouth no longer was covering hers, her breathing was even more pronounced. She was breathing so hard it was embarrassing. And when he happened to breathe down onto her skin, well…she hadn't even known that she was capable of making those noises…

"Do you still want me out, love?" Rhett's voice was laced with passion and tenderness. Rough and broken, Scarlett had never heard anything like it. It made the fire in her body spread farther.

This brought her back to reality for a moment, and suddenly she remembered why she was making him move out of their room. Now that his lips were no longer inducing temporary amnesia, she suddenly remembered where they were and what she had just demanded of him not an hour ago. His body was pressed rigidly against hers, and it felt delicious. How could it be possibly for someone to feel so…good! Her body was begging her to continue what they had already begun. But her stubborn will, as always, won out.

Her eyes shot open to glare at him and suddenly she was angry. Angry that he had made her want….what had he made her want?

Him. He had made her want him when he knew that he was the last thing on earth she would ever want.

It wasn't much but it was the only thing that her befuddled mind could come up with to convince her body to comply.

"Yes!" Her voice was harsh and she roughly pushed him away from her, jumping off the bed. Rhett stumbled back slightly, apparently not expecting this reaction to his question. She walked back to the door, picking up her hat and her glove off the floor before struggling to replace them with shaky hands.

Behind her she heard Rhett sigh heavily. The mattress shifted under his weight as he straightened up to stand.

"I am not leaving Scarlett." Exasperation and determination were heavy in his voice, making it apparent that he wasn't backing down. Scarlett turned to look at him now, still trying unsuccessfully to manipulate the glove onto her hand.

The sight she was met with made her stomach dance wildly. There were beads of sweat on his brow. His hair in disarray, his coat was unbuttoned and his shirt was bunched and knotted. He wiped his hand down his face, as someone would do after a long day of work, trying to calm his breathing. His breathing had slowed, but his gestures had only proven to speed hers up again.

What was wrong with her?

"Then I will!" She spoke hastily and roughly, her struggle with her glove becoming increasingly more violent.

She heard a short, low chuckle come from Rhett as he walked toward her. "No, you will not. You will stay in this room…." He grabbed her hand, easily slipping the glove back onto her hand "…with me."

He looked into her eyes, frankness and honesty clear in his face. His hand wrapped loosely around her wrist. She ripped her wrist from his gentle grasp and turned to make her way to the door. When she reached the doorway, she turned to Rhett one last time. Resentment and irritation were clearly written on her face.

"I will be back soon. If I were you I would start, get that," she gestured towards the pile of clothes and belongings, "-cleared up. Perhaps you should get Pork to come and help, seeing as you don't have very long." Her tone was condescending. With a lift of her chin, she strutted from the room. The confidence and triumph in her chest swelled again.

Battle over. Victory won…


	7. Chapter 7

Scarlett finished her business more quickly than she would have liked. She had tried everything to draw out the time. When she stopped by the store, she questioned her manager about everything that came to her mind. She made suggestions about random items and kept jumping from topic to topic in an effort to keep her mind turning. By the time she left, she knew the man was more than a little confused.

At Johnny Gallegher's mill, Scarlett checked over the books three times before lecturing Mr. Gallegher on his atrocious handwriting skills for a good twenty minutes. Upon arriving at Ashley's mill, she checked his books three times as well. She was lucky enough to actually have reason to check it for the fourth time. Her Ashley was very bad at keeping books.

When she left Ashley's mill, the sky was tinted heavily with beautiful pink and purple patterns. She tried to think of something else she could do before she went back to the house. She thought of visiting Aunt Pitty but decided against it. She wasn't dressed for a visit. She was sure that it had been more than a little obvious to her employees that she was lacking an essential undergarment today. She could only imagine what Aunt Pitty's reaction would be to her attire. Not to mention the fact that she couldn't bear to be in the same room with India Wilkes under normal circumstances. But to be in a room with India when she wore that ridiculous, condemning look on her face… well, that was too much to ask of her patience.

She thought of visiting Melly but decided against that too. She knew that a visit at this hour would warrant a dinner invitation. Scarlett knew as well as anyone that Ashley was barely able to feed his little family. And with Melly always busybodying about, inviting people to dinner… They didn't need someone else to feed

So she slowed her horse to a slow trot, allowing for the slowest ride possible. She rode this way for a few minutes, but her impatient nature got the best of her. Upon reaching town, she spurred her horse on toward her house.

When her house came in sight, she slowed her horse again. But no matter how slow the horse trotted, it wasn't slow enough for Scarlett. The poor animal was more than a little agitated upon reaching the house. There were probably sores in the horse's mouth from Scarlett's constant tugging at the reins for the animal to slow down.

When she reached the house, Pork was already there to take her horse. Why did she have to have such prompt servants? Now she couldn't even ride out to the stable before entering the house. She was sharp with Pork as she gave him the reins and some instruction. She realized that there was no reason for abusing the loyal servant, but didn't care.

Once she entered the house, she made a beeline for her room. If she could just get there, she could feign illness and stay in for the rest of the night.

When she finally reached her room, she swiftly closed the door and locked it. She let out a pent up sigh as she pulled her gloves from her hands.

She tried not to think about the last time they had been taken off…

She also tried not to think of the last time her bedroom door had been slammed so swiftly…She glanced at the bed—No! She wouldn't think about it!

She did notice, however, that the bed was now free of all of Rhett's belongings. As was the floor. She refused to feel anything. Walking over to the bell pull, she pulled it down and headed to her closet. She passed the opened door of Rhett's closet and skidded to a stop in front of it.

All of Rhett's clothes were arranged neatly and tidily back in their original places. It was as if this afternoon had never happened.

And then the rage came.

"I—I heard you ring Miz Scarlett…" Mammy, out of breath from climbing the stairs, stumbled into the room. Immediately sensing Scarlett's rage, Mammy readied herself for her lamb's tantrum.

But Mammy was surprised. Scarlett just stood there staring at the closet. She was breathing rather heavily and Mammy realized that Scarlett wasn't wearing a corset. She wouldn't be able to breathe that deeply with one constricting her stomach and Mammy felt a brief moment of indignation that Scarlett would forget her raising so easily. However, all of Mammy's thoughts were interrupted by a strange event, in which she was sure had never happened in the case of her mistress.

Scarlett's murderous expression changed to something akin to a satisfied smirk. She let out a small, hollow laugh. Mammy, startled by the sudden change, jumped slightly at the sound. Briefly, she wondered if Scarlett wasn't murderous but somewhat mad. But she immediately dismissed the idea. She was almost positive that it had to do with the argument that she and Mr. Rhett had had earlier… It was hard not to hear…

"Mammy," Scarlett suddenly spoke, "I am ready to go to bed. I am rather tired. Could you help me undress?"

That was when Mammy remembered her earlier revelation, and a scowl hardened her countenance. "You and me both know, Miz Scarlett, that you ain't needin' no hep from me wid dat dress. Seein' as you ain't got nothin' underneath it." Mammy spoke with her must indignant voice.

It didn't faze Scarlett at all as she continued to try and unbutton the buttons in the back of her dress on her own. She turned towards her own closet. "You don't have to help then. I can do it myself. You just let the kitchen know that I won't be eating dinner tonight. I am not hungry…"

Mammy smirked at that. Her lamb was never "not hungry". "Dat's to bad, cuz they's made a duck and…"

Scarlett stuck her head out at the first mention of a specific food. "Duck?" Trying to act like this detail did little to sway her in her decision, Scarlett shrugged nonchalantly and declared that she didn't care before disappearing into the closet again. A moment later Scarlett walked out in her robes and headed straight to her bed.

"Pull the curtains, will you, Mammy?" Scarlett asked, pulling her bedclothes back over the mattress.

Mammy huffed. There was no arguing with Scarlett when she was like this. Mammy knew this better than anyone. She did as Scarlett asked and headed for the door.

"Mammy, save some of the duck." Scarlett said in a veiled voice, muffled by her pillow.

"Yes'm." Mammy smirked.

Dreaming was a unique thing. It prompted in the dreamer visions and feelings that refuse to be thought of candidly. Scarlett's mind was no different.

Scarlett was in a room and she couldn't see anything. Everything was blurred. She thought she might be in a parlor but something told her she was wrong. She was looking at something in front of her. Something tall, a dark shadow in the vague universe. She couldn't stop looking at it. She tried to look at the shadow and take in her surroundings too but she couldn't focus on both things at the same time She couldn't figure out where she was and stare at the obscure shadow. But she didn't want to look away from the formless looming shape that seemed to bring her comfort.

Behind her she also felt a presence. The urge to turn and inspect it was great but she didn't want to look away from the shadow. She was afraid for an unknown reason. And yet, she knew why too. She didn't know where she was and she felt alone.

She stayed this way for a long time, staring at the shadow. But she still desperately wanting to find out where she was and she wanted to turn around to see what she felt looming behind her. She was beginning to feel frustrated. Why wouldn't the shadow move? Why couldn't she just see where she was and see the thing behind her without the shadow leaving her? When her frustration started, she noticed the shadow starting to move closer to her, as if afraid to anger her. She hadn't ever considered being near the shadow. Just seeing it had been enough, but at the thought of being close to it, to feeling it…she couldn't contain her eagerness. She reached out to the shape before it reached her and she tried to grab it. Her fingers had reached it but they went straight through. As if it were a ghost. She pulled her hand back as she watch the shadow dissolve in front of her, slowly fading where her fingers had touched until nothing was left. Part of her wanted to cry. But the other part was relieved in a way that confused her. But she didn't ponder on her confusion towards her relief because now that the shadow was gone she could concentrate on her surroundings.

She was on a road. And it was dark and she could smell smoke and hear bombs. Next to her was a carriage. She could hear a baby crying in that carriage. Melanie's baby. Now she knew where she was and she was terrified.

The War. No. The War was over. It couldn't be the War. The more afraid she felt, the greater the presence behind her felt. She felt it was closer now than it had ever been and it was warm. The longer she stood there with the presence behind her, begging her to turn around and look at it, the warmer it felt. She felt it get warmer and warm, until her back felt like it was on fire.

Burning…

She turned in an attempt to ward what felt like flames, and suddenly she couldn't see at all. Fear like she had never known gripped her. She needed to find light. She needed to see. She reached out, searching blindly for anything, and her hand touched something. She gripped it firmly, feeling its hardness and strength. She knew it was strong without knowing what it was, and she also knew that it was the force that had been behind her all along, begging her to turn. She felt relieved to feel it. Like she was doing exactly what she was supposed to do upon discovering it. Her fingers traced the figure in the darkness and it didn't take her long to realize that it wasn't just a force or a shadow…

It was a man.

She knew who it was. Without being told and without speaking herself, she knew. And she suddenly felt a rush of excitement and bewilderment at her discovery. She continued her exploration of what she now knew were his arms. She was so happy it was him, and yet she couldn't believe she hadn't known it before.

She could feel his happiness too, and it filled her with longing. He must have felt the change in her emotions because suddenly she was bombarded with a rush of passion and desire and he was touching her too. Pushing and tugging at her body. Bringing her closer and closer. She yielded to his warmth—he was so warm!—and raked her hands across his body possessively. Both yielding and taking at the same time.

His lips crashed into hers violently and possessively. His hands were everywhere. Everything. Oh, it felt so good! Her back, her neck, her arms, her shoulders, her chest…oh, please! Her stomach, her thighs, her stomach again, and then down…down…

_Don't stop! _Her body seemed to scream it over and over, as if it knew it was inevitable. But he didn't stop, and she had never been so grateful.

She was touching him too, matching his touches with her own. And she was so close…so very close, but she didn't know what she was reaching for.

It was too much and not enough and she screamed his name, pleading with him to satisfy it. To give it to her…

"Rhett!"

Scarlett was still dreaming, tossing and turning, when Rhett came in. He heard her calling for him, and instinctively thought that she was having one of her nightmares. He ran for her and scooped her body up, anticipating her tears and readying himself to comfort her.

Scarlett awoke to the same warmth surrounding her as she had felt in her dream and it matched the warmth that was seething within her own body. She opened her eyes and it was him.

Rhett was staring down at her and holding her and she had never wanted to see him, and only him, so badly.

She had never needed anyone like she needed him right now.

She attacked his mouth with her own. Moaning and grasping and fighting to get closer. She reached up and grasped his hair, pulling it roughly. She sat up and straddled him on the bed, forcing his hands on her and continued to demand, command…she wouldn't take no for an answer.

She continued to assault his mouth, still moaning into him with every brush of her tongue to his. She pulled his hair again trying to get him closer and he groaned too, sending lightning bolts of heat to parts of herself she had never known existed.

She let go of his hair and grabbed his hands and raked them over her body with her own. Savagely, she and he both assaulted her body harshly: her breast, her stomach, her thighs. Her stomach, her breast, her back, her thighs, until she couldn't take it anymore. She grasped his hand and roughly slid it in between her legs.

"Oh Rhett!" Scarlett groaned. Rhett growled and took over. He flipped her around and slamming her onto the bed, started ravishing her body roughly with his mouth, his hands. Just like in the dream, she was on fire. And the fire seemed to be spreading and building. And she knew at some point she was going to explode from the completeness, the pleasure. No one could feel this full and whole and not spontaneously combust.

She kept reaching for it and reaching for it, and Rhett kept leading her to it. With his hands and his mouth and his voice, grunting and groaning her name over and over again. And, always, when she felt too full to take it anymore, he would force her to keep reaching and she would revel in it.

She had thought that she had never felt so complete, and couldn't see how he could fill her anymore than he had. But then he filled her again, this time with himself. And the fire spiked into her stomach and forcing her body to reach again, and again. Building and filling and reaching…until she did finally explode into a million pieces.

Everything stopped. Froze. Time. Her Heart. And all she could see was his face. Still above her, still kissing her…and she was surprised to feel that she was still completely full. And it swelled within her in the sweetest way as he continued to softly kiss her face and stroke her cheeks and smile softly at her. She smiled too and said his name for the hundredth time that night, this time in a whisper. Reverence. Adulation.

His eyes filled same emotions that she had heard in her voice.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey Guys!! A few things before we start…

Thanks so much for all of the lovely reviews!! I am so glad that people like this story and I am glad that you are enjoying it. I need to give the biggest thank you in the world to skyebugs!!!!! :) Because without her, this chapter would not be what it is right now!! She is a great beta and muse… :)

Enjoy!!

The servants of the Butler mansion were usually the first awake in the colossal house on Peachtree Street. Many things were in need of being done before the masters of the house woke up. Cooking breakfast for the family was the first on the list of tasks. Breakfast needed to be on the table waiting when Mister Rhett and the children came down. Miss Scarlett usually took her breakfast later in the day. She had a tendency to sleep later than the rest of her family.

While the cook was in the kitchen preparing the meal, everyone else would work together to get everything else ready for the day. Mammy would set the table. Pork would ready the house depending on the seasons, whether by opening windows to allow some summer air to refresh the stifling mansion, or by starting a fire in the parlor and the dining room to ward off the cold in the winter. Rhett's horses would be readied, for Mister Rhett could have a mind to leave at any time. The household knew that it was in Mister Rhett's nature to be slightly unpredictable. Miss Scarlett's carriage would be readied for when she left the house in the late morning to run her errands. All the while, the nursemaid was readying the nursery for the children.

The servants knew their masters and they knew what they liked and what they needed. They knew the Butler's gargantuan mansion from top to bottom and knew everything that needed to be done to keep it looking its most grandiose. And they knew the family that they lived for and worked for.

And in knowing this family so well, no one expected to be awakened right at dawn by Miss Scarlett herself.

Mammy was appalled. Imagine her lamb coming down to the servant's quarters in her condition: clutching a half-donned gown to her form, asking Mammy to dress her. Her lamb! In the servant's quarters of her own house, half dressed! Miss Ellen would be turning in her grave to see this! What was Miss Scarlett doing up anyway? She never got up before the sun was mid-way in the sky.

Mammy asked her. _That's none of your business! You just fix the dress and let me worry about what I am doing awake!_

Mammy knew Scarlett. She had taken care of her and her sisters since they were tots. Mammy had fed her and changed her when she was a baby. She had bandaged up her scrapes and bruises when she was a little girl always playing far too roughly with the boys of the county. She had watched her grow into a clever young woman, who knew just how to tilt her head to draw the attention of any lad within a mile radius. And she had watched her become the hard businesswoman that she was today, who had scrimped and saved to keep her family alive and now basked in the result of her efforts. She knew when Scarlett was upset or happy. Or sad. Scarlett was an open-book.

And Mammy knew that now her lamb was frantic.

Mammy carefully dressed Scarlett, all the while scolding her and telling her that she should have called rather than sneaking down in the servant's quarters of the house like a cat and she begged her to go back up stairs to let her dress her. She even tried to sweet talk her. _Why's ma lamb don here wid' all dis riff-raff wen she should be up dar in her nice preddy bed sleeping wid da angel's in her head? _

Scarlett refused to listen to any of it and hastened her on. After Mammy finished dressing her, Scarlett immediately ordered her to tell Pork to go and saddle her horse. The old woman wasn't having any of that. Imagine Miss Ellen's daughter gallivanting around Atlanta when the sun wasn't even past the clouds. On horseback! Mammy refused at first. When Scarlett looked at her, her eyes were wild. She demanded that Mammy get Pork to ready the horse. She was shocked. Scarlett had always been a spitfire, but her eyes looked untamed. Feral. As if she had been some wild animal, finally released from captivity only to be captured again.

Pork readied the horse and Scarlett was gone in an instant. Mammy was left to ponder what had happened to make her lamb so upset as the servants, now awake, got started on their morning duties.

Mammy found herself even more perplexed concerning Scarlett's behavior when she saw Mister Rhett that morning. He was in the best spirits she had seen him in for quite some time. He practically skipped down the stairs, the tiny bundle that was his daughter in his arms, and jovially greeted everyone. He saluted Mammy with a cheeky grin. Mammy chuckled at his audacious personality.

That morning Rhett sat at breakfast with the children and laughed and played with them for nearly an hour. Mammy was pleased to see the laughter and happiness on the faces of Scarlett's two oldest. They seemed so somber for two children their age.

After Rhett and Wade had finished what was one of their many butter-knife sword fights, Rhett turned to Mammy and asked where Scarlett was. Mammy's mind had drifted from her lamb's unusual departure that morning upon being bombarded with the merriment of the house. Mammy quickly answered that Scarlett had left earlier that morning to take care of some business. Rhett simply chuckled and focused again on the children. Mammy noticed Mister Rhett's eyes, as she had Scarlett's that morning. His eyes had taken on the look of a convict that had been set free after years of imprisonment. Reckless. Unguarded.

Mister Rhett must have not noticed Mammy's hesitation or her perplexed expression, because he continued to laugh with the children as she left the breakfast room.

*~*

The town of Atlanta had changed within the past few years, though the old society of the city tried their damnedest to keep it as much like it was before. Though many new comers had tried to offer friendship to Atlanta's initial citizens, the Yankee riff-raff was rejected at all costs.

The Old Guard dies but it never surrenders.*

And in the tight-knit society of former Confederates, the ones shunned the most were the ones who had turned from their loyalties and united with the Yankees. And no other couple was more rebuffed in their excommunication than that of Rhett and Scarlett Butler.

And no one was more intriguing either.

Rhett Butler's name had always carried intrigue and inscrutability with it, but now that name also included a wife and a house. And a beautiful baby girl, who they were told was lavished upon with adoration by her parents, particularly her father. The citizens of Atlanta couldn't help but wonder with morbid curiosity what the family did up there in their house on that hill on Peachtree Street.

But however curious about the treacherous couple, Mrs. Merriwether would never offer a salutation to Rhett Butler whenever he greeted her on the street. It seemed that anytime that she was walking down the street and Rhett Butler was riding by, he would tip his hat to her or smile that impudent grin that made her feel unsafe though in a crowd of people.

The first time he had done this, Mrs. Merriwether had glared at him in shock at his presumptuous behavior, and continued to walk in a huff. After that, she merely tried to ignore him, or pretend that he wasn't there at all.

On this particular morning, that was not the case. While Captain Butler never had dared to speak to her before, he had the audacity to do it now. "Good Morning, Mrs. Merriwether. Fine weather today, is it not?" he had said as he tipped his hat.

Well, what was the woman to do in good Christian spirit but to acknowledge the rogue? She nodded stiffly while muttering a barely audible, "Indeed". As she walked away, she was surprised to hear laughter behind her.

The clerk of Kennedy's General Store was greeted by Captain Butler that morning, as well. The poor man was surprised and a little more than anxious when Captain Butler walked through the door of the store. He had only ever seen Mrs. Butler's husband once before, and he wasn't sure whether he had much to do with the business. Not wanting to be scolded for doing an inadequate job, he hastily fumbled with the papers in his hands as he shakily welcomed Captain Butler to the store. When asked if there was anything that he needed assistance with, Rhett threw back his head and laughed, and congratulated the man on his apt patron skills. "Mrs. Butler would be proud, no doubt." And though Rhett words were laced with sarcasm, the clerk visibly eased.

Captain Butler had merely wanted to know if Scarlett was at the store. Upon telling Captain Butler that he had not seen Mrs. Butler, Captain Butler tipped his hat jovially and took his leave.

Johnnie Gallegher had also seen Mrs. Butler's husband that day. Captain Butler had shown up at the mill in a cheerful mood, looking to see if Mrs. Butler had been there. Johnnie answered. No, he had not seen Mrs. Butler. Captain Butler had merely tipped his hat to him and left just as quickly as he had come.

Ashley Wilkes had seen Captain Butler that day as well. He had been working arduously over the books that Scarlett had corrected for him just the day before, trying to keep the numbers in order. He had never been good with numbers, being one more prone towards literature as a young man. And now he wondered what had ever made him believe that he could have survived as a banker even if he had moved up North with his darling wife and son.

Placing the pencil gently on the table before rising from the desk, Ashley wandered over to the window on the other side of the room. When he caught sight of Rhett Butler riding up on horseback, his first reaction was disgrace. He remembered the things that he had said to Scarlett months before about her husband. Shameful things that a married man should never say to another married woman, especially when one knew of the outstanding sentiments that had yet been settled between the two. His second reaction was that of fear. For though he assumed Captain Butler to be an irresponsible, reckless man, he did not believe him to be ignorant. Ashley's first assumption was that he was here to call him out.

Quickly putting the absurd thought from his mind, Ashley hurried to the door to meet Rhett outside. Rhett rode his horse right up to Ashley and tipped his hat to him. "Mr. Wilkes."

"Good Morning, Captain Butler. It's a nice morning for a ride. What can I help you with?"

"Indeed it is," Rhett spoke, and Ashley thought that his smile looked more like a jeer. "I was wondering if you had seen my wife."

Ashley tried not to assume things but he couldn't help but sense the possessiveness in the choice of Rhett's words. It felt more like Rhett was claiming what was his, rather than simply asking Ashley if he had seen her.

"I haven't Captain Butler. Not since yesterday." Ashley stated, peering up at Rhett through squinted eyes. It was almost noon, he aimlessly thought as Rhett thanked him and rode off. Ashley couldn't help but notice the smirk that had settled on Rhett's face as he galloped away, leaving him in a trail of dust.

Many of Atlanta's citizens had spotted Captain Butler that day. Some who had seen him that morning had noticed his unusually jovial manner. Those who had seen him again that afternoon noticed a difference in his expression. While this morning he had been carefree, this afternoon he appeared to be searching and a little worried.

Mrs. Merriwether had seen him, to her misfortune, a second time that day. When she had seen him, she had quickly diverted her attention, hoping to spare herself the embarrassment of another awkward greeting. But Captain Butler's greeting never came. He seemed intent as he rode by her on the street, his mood having almost completely shifted from the jovial, impetuous man of this morning.

The most baffled of all was Mammy. When Mister Rhett had stormed through the doors of the house that afternoon demanding that he be informed as soon as Miss Scarlett arrived, Mammy had nodded dumbly with a "Yes suh".

Mister Rhett went to the nursery to sit with the baby, and didn't come down again until supper.

The children arrived downstairs that evening and upon seeing their Uncle they had cheered and yelled, remembering with rapture the great fun that they had had that morning. But though Uncle Rhett was just as nice as he always was, this night he did not butter-knife sword fight with Wade, or pretend that he was a prince and Ella was a beautiful princess. The children were disappointed. Where had the Uncle Rhett from this morning gone?

After supper was over, Mammy had ordered the children up the stairs. Rhett followed them and headed straight for his daughter's bassinet when he reached the nursery. After reading the baby a story and gently placing a kiss on her forehead, Rhett left the room and headed downstairs once again.

When Mammy had hustled her way back down the stairs after the children were asleep, the sun had since gone down, leaving just the barest trace of daylight in the sky. Mammy was frenzied with worry and scolding Miss Scarlett in her head for being so late getting home. As she walked past the dining room door, which was partially ajar, she peeked in to see Mister Rhett taking a nightcap. She asked if he needed anything, and he merely nodded "no" as he continued to sip his nightcap.

A half an hour later, Miss Scarlett arrived home to the wrath that was Mammy. As Mammy helped her inside and ordered Pork to go and take her horse, she harassed Scarlett with every thought that she had been thinking since the sun went down. _You's Miz Ellen's daughta! An' I can't 'magine wat Miz Ellen wud say to Ol' Mammy was she's ta see ya now! Gallavantin' all over 'Lanta like's a Yankee girl on hawseback all day, and not showin' hide na tail 'til afta da sun dun went down from da sky…_

Mammy continued to go on, even as Miss Scarlett shushed her. Once Miss Scarlett started to make her way up the stairs towards her room, Mammy saw her eyes shift to the dining room door. Mammy looked too and saw Mister Rhett looking at Miss Scarlett keenly as he leaned casually against the door jam. When Mammy looked back at her mistress, Scarlett had already turned to make her way up the stairs.

Mister Rhett's eyes followed her all the way up.

***A/N: **This was a direct quote from the book. It was given by Rhett to Scarlett when they were talking about her new ostentatious house. In my book, it was on page 798. Thanks! :)


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own anything GWTW....Come on people!! If I own Rhett Butler, do think I would be HERE...merely writing about the things that could be done to him? Just saying...

After discussing my wonderful beta, Skyebugs, I decided to change the rating back to T. We thought that a simple warning at the beginning of the chapter was adequate and that it wasn't really 'smut'. Just letting you know... Also, I am going to try to keep post about every week around this time. Either Tuesday or Wednesday. So, to let you know, you should see the next chapter within a week...I am trying to stick to a schedule now...

Another HUGE thanks to Skyebugs for her amazing beta skills and her mad muse expertise. You rock girl! :)

~*~

Fire ignited within her again when her eyes met his, and she quickly turned away.

She hadn't eaten anything all day. She needed to eat. She needed to eat and then she needed to go to bed. She was tired. She had had a long day. She knew that she must look haggard and just as gaunt as she used to after working all day in the fields. _I just __need__ to eat and sleep_, she thought as Mammy followed her up the stairs and helped her undress and slip into a robe.

"Mammy, I am starving. Would you get something ready for me, please?" Scarlett's voice was weak and she knew that her exhaustion made her sound somber.

"Wud ya like Mammy ta brang ittup ta ya so's you's can eat's it while's ya lied down, lamb?" Mammy said in her sweetest voice, and Scarlett knew that she was going to try to sweet talk her into taking her dinner upstairs. Scarlett looked at the bed, and quickly looked away. She knew she would never be able to eat up here, in this room. Lying on_ that_ bed.

"No, Mammy. I will take it in the dining room." Her voice was so weak; her words came out in a whisper. Scarlett was surprised that Mammy did not argue. Perhaps the old woman was surprised too. Her mistress had never had a soft-spoken bone in her body.

Mammy made her way downstairs as Scarlett finished undressing.

Eat and Sleep. Eat and Sleep. That is all. Nothing else. There was nothing else but her need for food and her need for sleep.

She made her way down the stairs. By now it was completely dark outside and the house was dark and quiet as well. The only light that she saw was coming from the dining room, so she followed it.

Rhett was there. And though she felt that she should have been surprised, she wasn't. He was leaning back in a chair, the two front legs hovering above the ground, and cradling a nightcap between his hands. He looked up from the contents of the cup and stood when she entered. When he nodded at her, there was no malice or mockery in his gesture and so she smiled slightly in response. The food that Mammy had prepared for her was already set out. Scarlett made her way to the setting and Rhett met her there, pulling out her chair for her. He was the closest to her he had been since this morning and Scarlett could hear his breathing.

She was hungry and tired. She needed to eat and sleep. Nothing else existed. No feelings or emotions but her hunger and her fatigue.

She sat down. "Thank you". Her voice was still very soft, to the point that it made her sound meek.

"You're welcome." Rhett walked back to his place, settled a few chairs down from Scarlett's.

Scarlett vigorously consumed the food on her plate, all the while exceedingly aware of Rhett's eyes on her. The silence and the awkwardness of the situation was driving her mad and she simply wanted for him to talk rather than look at her like _that_. Looking at her with _those _eyes.

"Did you have a good day, Rhett?" She spoke hastily, looking at him through the corner of her eye as she took another bite of her meal.

He took a minute to respond and only replied with a, "Umhm." He looked at his cup again. When his eyes left her she eased, though she hadn't realized that she had been so tense.

"Did you have a good day, Scarlett?" Rhett looked at her again, his eyes more intense than before. Scarlett glanced at him through the corner of her eye but looked away quickly when she felt the heat again.

She started to rise from the table as she spoke and Rhett rose with her. "Yes, I did. It was a…nice day." Her voice was still soft, and she hated that it made her sound vulnerable.

"Where did you go, Scarlett?" His voice was firm but soft.

Scarlett went to pick up her plate, as if to take it to the kitchen, "I just went for a ride. Sometimes it's nice to…" She tried to make her voice stronger so as not to sound so weak. But she failed miserably when she trailed off, not knowing how to finish her thought.

"Scarlett, let one of the servants do that," Rhett reached out and touched her arm as he spoke. His fingertips had barely grazed her skin when she quickly threw her arm back, dropping the plate with a crash.

Rhett let out a harsh laugh and put his glass on the table. Both bent down to pick up the pieces of glass strewn across the floor.

Rhett's voice was full of mockery and sarcasm when he spoke again. "It seems that my touch is more than a little disturbing to you, my dear. It's a wonder that you could initiate the things you did last night when you'd ruin a perfectly good piece of china rather than allow my contact."

Scarlett threw the pieces of glass she had picked up back down onto the floor again. "Go to hell!" she hissed, as she stood and made her way for the door.

Rhett laughed a bitter laugh. "Aren't we already there, Scarlett? Haven't you put us there?" His voice got harder as he spoke.

Scarlett whipped around to face him. "I put us in hell Rhett? Why is it that I can't do or say anything without you throwing it back in my face? That's hell." She turned for the door again, refusing to acknowledge the tears on her cheeks.

She was stopped by Rhett's hand gently wrapping around her wrist. She allowed him to stop her because as soon as he touched her, she calmed down. She didn't turn around but she felt him raise her hand and barely graze her palm with a kiss. She closed her eyes, reveling in the feel of him so close.

Scarlett knew that she needed him, though she didn't know why. She also knew that the relationship that she and Rhett shared had always been terribly fragile. Their life could be easily compared to the life of the shattered plate on the floor. Everything they were balanced on the edge of a table between them both. If either of them shifted even the tiniest bit, the plate would topple to the floor and break. And they would go with it.

She was so confused. She suddenly needed him in a way that she never had before, and without understanding any of it, she didn't know how it could possibly work. She couldn't bring herself to lie to him, yet she couldn't bring herself to trust him either.

After a moment, Rhett spoke. "Scarlett…" He pulled her wrist, silently asking her to turn to him. She obliged. "Honey, where did you go?"

He had called her 'honey'. He rarely called her 'honey', but he had before. The memory came to her as soon as she felt the déjà vu. Scarlett, sitting in Aunt Pittypat's library, had been half drunk and had spilled her darkest secrets to Rhett in a rush of emotion and tears. He had been so kind and sympathetic that day and had made everything better. She remembered thinking that everyone else was a stranger except for Rhett, and now she was reminded again of how well he knew her.

She looked down at his hand on her wrist. Rhett was touching her and she knew that in his own way he was apologizing for his hasty words. He was surrendering his pride. And Scarlett knew that the only way for this to work was for her to release herself from her inhibitions as well.

So she tried.

"I-I went for a ride, Rhett. I needed to-to think." Scarlett continued to look at his hand on her arm as she spoke.

"What did you need to think about, Scarlett?" Rhett's voice was husky and he had started to caress her wrist slowly. Scarlett dared to look at him again. His eyes were full of understanding, just as they had been a few nights ago, when she had poured all of her sorrows out to him. The way he was looking at her now made her feel that she could tell him her darkest dreams and desires and he would understand.

She wanted so badly to trust him, but doubts still lingered in her mind. She remembered with clarity every hateful thing he had ever said to her. Every barb that had escaped from those lips…

She also remembered other things that had escaped from those lips. Things that had been whispered rather than jeered. Things that had been done with those lips only hours before and she abruptly realized that she could no longer concentrate while he touched her. She softly pulled her arm out of his grasp and in spite of her doubts, she started to speak.

"I-I needed to think. I have had a lot on my mind lately. Pa's death and…eh-" She closed her eyes in embarrassment. But when she opened them again to look at Rhett, he was standing just as before. Full of understanding and patiently waiting to hear what she had to say. It made her feel a little more confident as she continued.

"I woke up and you were still asleep," She paused as she remembered how delicious it had felt to wake up to his arm draped across her bare waist, and his face snuggled into the crook of her neck. "I-I wasn't ready to face you… So I had my horse readied and I went out and just rode." She looked at him again, his expression still as patient as ever.

"At first, I didn't think about anything. I just _felt_. I felt the reins in my hands. And I felt…" She stopped, unable to find the right words to convey her feelings. She had never been very articulate, and it didn't help matters that she wasn't presently in the dining room. She was riding again, feeling the wind in her hair and the horse beneath her. "I just rode and just let myself go. But it eventually led to memories of when I used to do that as a child, at Tara. Then I started to think." She closed her eyes tightly as the memories bombarded her again. "I thought about my friends, that I had grown up with. I thought about the many horse races we had had while we were children. I had often raced with the boys, " Scarlett smiled.

"I always beat them. I was always way out in front of them. Now that I look back, I think part of it was that I was on a horse just as big as theirs and yet I weighed a good forty pounds less than many of them.

"And while I was riding, I went back to that time. I pretended that I was way out in front, and that they were all behind me. I rode that way for a long time. In my mind I was back at Tara, a child again, heading for my mother and father with my friends tailing behind me in a race."

She paused, knowing that she was only going to get more and more vulnerable in his eyes as she went on. Rhett was smiling gently at her confession. He had always said that she was a child at heart, and that she had had to grow up too quickly. She could only imagine that he was thinking these things now, and she wondered if he was laughing at her. But as she looked into his eyes, still tenderly amused, she couldn't find any malice or any of that cynical laughter present. Instead he looked as if he thought her endearing, and it gave her the strength to continue in spite of her lingering doubts.

"I eventually stopped at this-this pond. I had to let the horse water and I was getting restless. I got off and stood there for a few minutes, just staring at the water. Then all of the sudden it hit me. No one was behind me. They weren't going to catch up because they weren't there, Rhett! And my mother and father weren't just a few minutes away. They were gone! They are...gone!" Tears had starting running down her face, and Scarlett had started to pace in front of Rhett.

"And I-", She looked at Rhett contemplating whether she should reveal the next part of her story to him. Beautiful understanding was shining in his eyes as he intently looked at her. " I cried!" She started to sob then, still pacing across the floor. "I cried for everything I had lost, and for everything that I had been forced upon me that I had never wanted! For my Pa and my mother! I cried because all of my friends were dead and because things were never going to be the same! I never got to say good-bye to them and things were never coming back, Rhett!" Her voice had risen until she was almost yelling, frenzied as she tried to convey her thoughts.

"I wanted so many things, and I didn't have any of the things that I had dreamed about! And I was looking at my life, Rhett. I felt like I could see things for the first time." She had calmed a little, though her tears continued to pour. Her words were scrambled now as she tried to frantically put her thoughts together. "My life…I have everything. Everything that anyone could want. And I have money and a big house. I have children and a husband. And I had always thought that I was happy with that!

"Until…Rhett, until…" She looked down, her voice growing softer, and she was sure that the reverence that had been present in her voice as she had whispered his name over and over again last night was there now. She was ashamed that he could probably hear it too. She was sure that he could practically see it bleeding from her lips. "I needed…something. I don't—but you gave me it. I knew that there was something—and you reached out to me and gave me...something…" Scarlett looked up at Rhett, into his eyes.

Two dark, blazing coals.

He reached for her, and she couldn't do anything but reach for him too. It was instinct now, something that she couldn't stop herself from doing, even if it meant losing face. She had to touch him. She grabbed him and threw herself into his arms, even as he pulled her closer. She buried her face into his chest, breathing him in as her hands ran wildly up and down his back. Rhett clutched her too, his hands grasping at her hair, neck, back…

"Even now, my—I'm begging myself to—…I—" She sobbed. "But that is what confuses me the most!" She squeezed her eyes. "How can I...I _need_ you so badly when I love-" She cut herself short, realizing what she was about to say.

Rhett froze, his hands surrendering their hold on her. He started to back away from her and Scarlett already knew he was piecing the rest of her sentence together. When she could see his eyes again, they were hard. The fire had ceased, leaving behind only a harsh film of smoldering ash. "I suppose you are speaking of our noble Mr. Wilkes." His voice was cold, and it stung Scarlett in a way that hurt physically. He had been so understanding! It hurt her deeply that her deepest regret and hurt seemed to mean nothing to him.

She screamed at him through the ache that had settled on her chest from his careless attitude. "Yes! I am talking about Mr. Wilkes. Ashley! I don't understand why I could need you when I love him so much!"

Rhett's eyes were squinted together and he was massaging his forehead as he spoke, "Yes, it is awful to need your husband while you long for another man!"

Scarlett's voice was filled with pain and outrage. "I thought you were going to understand, Rhett…"

"What is there to understand? That my wife is in love with another man?" Rhett snorted. "I have known that since the first day I met you, do you remember? Surely you haven't forgotten! What do you want me to understand, Scarlett? Do you want me to acknowledge what a little idiot you are for assuming you love him?"

"I know I love him!" She screamed again. She raced towards him as she spoke. "I didn't always understand why, but now I do! I have thought about so much today, and if there is anything I understand now it is this! I love Ashley and I will never let him go! He is all I have left!" She sobbed, now face to face with him. "I lost my family and my childhood and my life! He is all that is left of that now! The only part of that person that lived before the _bills_ and _taxes_ had to be paid! He is the part of _me_, _Scarlett_, a part of me that I loved and I will never let go! Ever!" She covered her face with her hands and continued to sob.

She stood there with her eyes tightly shut until Rhett pulled her hands away from her face and wiped the tears from her cheeks. And again, he was touching her. Reaching for her. And some part of herself worshipped him for it.

When he spoke, he spoke gently but bluntly. "Scarlett, you are holding on to a dream. A small piece of your childhood that makes you feel connected to everything you lost. _Your _dream of Ashley is not real. _He_ is not that dream. My darling, you don't love him." Scarlett pulled away from him, shaking her head 'no'.

She turned from him, still shaking her head. "No, a dream is what made me..._throw_ myself at you like a-a wanton woman!" She covered her face in shame, once again. "No…" She walked a few paces from him and turned to face him. She looked at him for a long time before she spoke.

"I don't love you, Rhett." She said, her voice even and clear. Scarlett watched as his shoulders dropped suddenly and his face fell into something that she didn't recognize. He stood there for a moment with that horrible look on his face, and she had to look away. It hurt her to see him looking like that.

"All right." His voice sounded completely different than his face looked, and his words echoed something that was contradictory to his demeanor. He laughed crudely and caustically said, "It's nice to know that all of your 'thinking' this afternoon effectively accomplished nothing, Scarlett. You will never cease to be anything but predictable, my dear. Even after spending all day thinking about your life and then proceeding to examine the fact that you despise it, you refuse to do anything about it."

Scarlett's temper flared at his words. Rhett noticed and reached out and touch her cheek before she could say anything. The fire eased in her chest at the feel of his skin.

The bitterness was gone from his voice, and his eyes were burning intensely again. "But you need me, Scarlett?"

Scarlett didn't answer for a moment, refusing to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he had such power over her. Rhett placed his hand on her other cheek, forcing her to look at him.

She had jumped at him as soon as she realized what he was doing, assaulting his mouth with her own. He let her for a moment, kissing her back with equal passion before prying his lips from hers. He spoke as he backed away. "It's not enough, Scarlett. I want more…" Scarlett followed him to the dining room door, and watched him climb the stairs. He slumped as if it took great effort. As if every step might as well have been a mountain.

Once he was out of her sight, emptiness consumed her and she fell to the floor, next to the shattered china, and sobbed brokenly.

**A/N: **I have a little outtake/parody that I am going to send to all of my reviewers this time around. It was inspired by a comment in a review by BlaqueCat13 and it sparked my muse!! :) Please let me know what you think of the chapter... :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** If I owned GWTW, this would be the way that the story would have turned out…so…umm…that would be a 'no'…

Welp, here is the next chapter!! A few authors notes…

First of all, I will be sending out another "review goodie" to all those that review again. I am glad that many of you enjoyed Scarlett's little talk with Belle :). This next one will be part two…::clears throat:: And once again I must thank BlaqueCat13, because she was she one who peaked my muse for the 2nd part. You are on a role girl!!! :)

Second, I think I took a few liberties in this chapter. If you see any inconsistencies with the book, please let me know…

Third, I just wanted to make some music recommendations :) The whole time I was writing this chapter I was listening to _The Fray, _"Say When" and _The Killers, _"A Dustland Fairytale". They go really well with this chapter and this story in general, to me. Not to mention they are rocking songs!! :)

Lastly, the next chapter might be up a little later next week because I am going out of town. That is one of the reasons that this one is out earlier this week, so I can have time to start on the next one and stuff so…enjoy!

Special thank you to _Skyebugs, _as always! Don't know what I would do without her!! :) She is great!

~*~*~

She had fallen asleep. Now, she lay on the floor only half awake, appraising the room. It was that time of day when the sun and moon barely meet each other in the sky. The moon was disappearing and the sun was just barely cresting on the horizon. An almost eerie bluish light filled the dining room, making the cut of Rhett's glass, still sitting on the edge of the table, cast motley reflections on the walls. The light the large window emitted over the furnishings and walls of the room shed the polished woods and panels with a curious glow.

Scarlett didn't move for a long time, observing as the glow of soft azure flush ignited into a flourish of colors. Shining, blazing within the room. Uncovering the dark places that had been untouched before. Ignored. She stood when the sun felt too bright and rushed to the window to pull the curtains, blinking furiously against the blaze.

She trudged slowly up to her room, merely wanting to reach her bed and sleep.

~*~*~

She awoke to the sun glaring offensively into the room. Had someone pulled the curtains open? Or perhaps, they had never been closed to begin with. Scarlett shifted, now lying on her back, staring at the ceiling as she tried to wake up. Stretching awkwardly, she causally looked over to the space next to her. She was wondering…_wishing_—that someone was lying there.

Nothing.

The sheets weren't even rumpled. The _other _side of the bed looked just as it had the night before. Like no one had been there at all…Scarlett quickly hopped out of bed, trying to put all thoughts out of her head.

He had rejected her and turned her away. She had opened up to him in a way she never had before. She had admitted to needing him! The fool that she was…to think that he was worth trusting. She had thrown herself at him in an effort to show him how she felt, and he had pulled away. He had told her that she wasn't enough…

A hollow ache settled in her chest at the thought, but she ignored it. She wasn't going to sulk around as if she had been denied a reward. He was nothing. He was _Rhett. _She had always known this…and she wouldn't forget again. He was still the selfish, heartless varmint that he had always been. That was never going to change.

Unbidden, the image of his face the night before came to her mind, making her heart stop momentarily. Even Scarlett couldn't deny that the…she couldn't even describe it. Like when a young child realizes that their cherished stuffed bear isn't in fact alive. Innocence of ignorance lost.

It seemed to be the complete opposite of the look that she was accustomed to catching on his face. In which he would stare at her as a cat would a mouse hole. Searching. Waiting.

The thought tapped at her conscience continually—Did he care? How could a man not care and yet look at her the way he did? How could a man do such beautiful things to her— She must not think of _that_ now!

But how?

As soon as the thought took full form, her anger viciously retorted with the same words that Rhett had spoken the night before. Again and again she would force herself to remember what he had said, constantly dousing her mind with the wounding words and savagely shoving away the growing ache in her chest.

She couldn't think about it anymore! She wouldn't! She would think about it some other time. Just not now! Not now…

She thought of Ashley and forced herself to feel at peace. As she left the house that morning to go run her daily errands at the store and the mills, she vowed that her heart would neither quicken nor die at the thought of Rhett Butler ever again.

~*~*~

Scarlett always noticed that her clerks at the store were ridiculously anxious. And she couldn't help but think, as one of them stumbled over his words and clumsily sorted through the papers, how pathetic he was. Though these were things that a normal person would think rather than say, Scarlett had never been like a normal citizen and showed no hesitation in voicing her opinion of his behavior. It was utterly unprofessional. How could she leave _her _store in the hands of a fumbling, bumbling idiot? The idea was preposterous.

The clerk apologized, of course, assuring her that he kept the store and all of its requisites in the best order he was able to. She had to admit, grudgingly, that she rarely had to recalculate the books for the store as she so often did for the mills. But she did not voice these thoughts to the man.

During one of his efforts to explain to her the goings-on of the business in her short absence, he had dropped a whole stack of documents, leaving an ocean of papers at Scarlett's feet. Scarlett didn't even make the effort to defame him again; she simply sighed harshly and stepped over the mess. She managed the counter until he retrieved and rearranged the papers.

A woman walked into the store, eyeing the china in the window. Scarlett didn't even have to paste on her smile. She knew it had been a good idea to move the china to the front…

"Hello. Is there something I can help you with?" Scarlett stated in her sweetest voice.

The woman was rather plain in the face, and obviously very backward. She looked down at her pleated hem as she spoke, a little intimidated by Scarlett's forward nature. "Yes," she stated. "Those plates in the window, the ones with the blue bonnets wrapped around the edges, with the golden trim. How much is a set worth?"

Scarlett quoted the price and watched as the woman's face fell. Scarlett could tell by her reaction—and her clothing—that she couldn't afford it. She dropped her façade, now simply wanting to be rid of the woman. If she couldn't afford the things in the store, she didn't need to be here at all.

The woman smiled weakly at Scarlett. "Oh…" She uttered, the sound barely a whisper on her lips.

Scarlett smiled slightly and turned to walk away. The woman started to speak just as Scarlett was about to turn towards the counter. "They look exactly like my mother's used to." Scarlett paused in mid-step as the fresh memories of yesterday assaulted her once again. Her eyes burned with unshed tears, momentarily rendering her speechless. She looked at the young woman; this time she forced herself to notice things about her. Her hair, her eyes…

"I used to live on a plantation a little further south from here. Actually," the girl blushed, "I know who you are. I meet you once, at a Fair just south of Jonesboro. You were with my cousin, Rafe Calvert? If I remember correctly, you were rather close to his sister as well, Cathleen."

Rafe. At the mention of his name, a tear slipped from the corner of her eye. She didn't remember this particular Fair, and she didn't remember this girl. But she remembered many fond things that she hadn't thought about in a long time. Things that she had done with Rafe throughout the years of their childhood. There had been many fairs and many memories. Scarlett couldn't bear the thought of them.

She cleared her throat and nonchalantly wiped the tear from her eye. She forced her mind back to the place that it had been for the past five years, demanding it to stay there as it always had. Where things that hurt didn't creep up on her; where the memories of things that she could never have lie dormant.

"Well…it was nice to see you again." Scarlett said shortly, visibly converting her demeanor to the strict business woman she was. "But I am afraid that former backgrounds matter very little in this establishment and you will find that we do not show prejudice to people who we might or might not have known in the past."

The woman's eyes widened in horror. "I wasn't trying to…I was only…" Scarlett interrupted her.

"It really doesn't matter. Good afternoon." Scarlett turned from the woman.

The shadowy memoirs continued to follow her.

~*~*~

Scarlett immediately headed for Ashley's mill, praying he was there. She had to see him. Seeing him would surely put everything into perspective again. She would no longer feel this hollow emptiness in her chest when her eyes settled on his gently tousled blonde hair, his soft face and warm smile. His smile would fill the hole with liquid tranquility, pouring into the reopened wounds and healing them again. She knew this to be true. He would make her better.

She had been right. As soon as she saw him, her chest eased and she was suddenly in a time when all things had been wonderful and easy. Where everything had been blissfully predictable and everyone had lackadaisically lived their lives among those they had known for what seemed to be ages. She saw the young man that Ashley had been, a fabled remote deity effortlessly sweeping into her life and heart.

Her heart felt as if it had floated miles above her as she walked towards his smiling form. She eagerly reached for him as he politely held her hands in his, gently placing a kiss upon each. She cherished his touch, reveling in the feel of his familiar skin against hers.

"Scarlett, what a pleasant surprise! You are looking as lovely as ever." Ashley said, leading her toward the door. Scarlett simply smiled demurely and looked up at him through her lashes.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Scarlett?" Ashley asked.

"Oh, I just came by to check on things." _I came to see you._ Scarlett looked at him meaningfully.

"Of course." Ashley smiled, grabbing a chair before leading her to it. She sat down and looked at Ashley from across the room. "Can I get you anything? I am sure you are thirsty. I will pour you a glass of water."

"Thank you, Ashley." Ashley poured her a glass of water and walked carefully to her side. He handed her the glass, continuing to guide it from underneath until he was sure she had a good hold on it. He had barely touched her again, and it was so gentle. As if she was made of the most fragile glass.

Her mind burst with the memory of the touch of another's hands, rough and eager. Her body unwittingly reacted to the thought before she could stop it, her heart skipping several beats as her skin revealed sudden goose bumps.

"Scarlett darling, what have you been up to?" Ashley sat in a chair across from her. Scarlett sat there for a moment before she realized that Ashley was talking to her. She mentally shoved her unwanted thoughts away as she spoke.

"Oh…" Scarlett paused for a moment before continuing. "…Well, yesterday I went for a ride. A long…ride."

"Ah! That sounds just fine!" Ashley said. "No wonder your…that is Captain Butler. Well, he stopped by yesterday. He asked if you were here."

Scarlett's heart stopped at the mention of him and she cursed it. Curse it to hell! "Rhett stopped by here asking for me?" Scarlett wondered. What was Rhett doing here asking for her? As far as she knew, Rhett never came to the mills, or the store for that matter. They were _hers. _Rhett had made it clear long ago that she could keep them if they "brought her amusement". He had never expressed interest in them before. He had never come asking around for her at her mills before.

He had never before come looking for her…

"Yes, he stopped for just a moment. He…he seemed to be in a hurry. He didn't dismount his horse." Ashley looked concerned for a moment. "I pray nothing was the matter. No emergencies, I hope?"

"No, of course not." She said. Rhett had come to the mill, looking for _her_? Why?

For the rest of the time that she was with Ashley, she tried desperately to concentrate on him. And she did. She concentrated on his sparkling eyes and cornflower hair. She focused on the similarities that he still held to the Ashley that she had always known. _Her _Ashley had been younger; his face free from worry and his world free of trouble.

But the nagging questions in the back of her mind continued to scream at her through her carefully constructed barrier. The same questions she had been asking herself all day. Questions that continued to pile up as the day went on.

And she continued to shove them further behind the barrier, refusing to think of them.

When she left, Ashley bent down and kissed her cheek. It made her feel safe and comfortable. She smiled lazily at him before leaving.

~*~*~

Scarlett entered the house having found a renewed purpose.

She had finally acknowledged the fact that she did want to know the answers to all of her questions. She wanted to know why Rhett was at the mill yesterday and why he acted so ambiguously at times. But it was for intellectual reasons only. She was merely curious. That was all.

She also knew that she needed to prepare herself for her meeting with Rhett. She could try to avoid him, but that would be just be prolonging the inevitable. She would just let it happen. But when it did, she would be ready.

She had allowed herself to think of last night again, but only to berate herself for her idiocy in opening up to him so completely. No doubt, now that he knew of her deepest secrets that included several pertaining to him, he must be plotting ways to hold it against her. So, she would be prepared. She would avert his advances. He would not be allowed to use this against her. She wouldn't let him make an even bigger fool out of her than he already had…

She treaded up the stairs. Only when she reached the landing did she think about the fact that not one servant had greeted her at the door. She rolled her eyes as she thought of her servants, frustrated that they hadn't been doing what was expected of them.

The first person she saw was Mammy, and Scarlett could tell she was fuming. She was walking out of her bedroom and without even looking at her mistress, continued to lumber down the hallway, mumbling under her breath. Scarlett hadn't seen Mammy that put out in ages. She quickly entered the room to investigate the problem, expecting the worst. Perhaps some foolish ninny had broken one of her handcrafted vases that lined the tables and furniture throughout the room! Or perhaps someone had dented or scratched one of her walls!

She entered the room in a flurry, checking everything she saw, but was perplexed to find that nothing was out of place. Nothing was broken. Everything seemed to be in order.

Pork exited Rhett's closet, his hands full of clothing. He froze when he noticed her. After a moment, he quickly ducked his head from her and continued with his task, exiting her bedroom. Scarlett followed him. He led her to the room just down the hall. She heard Rhett's voice before she entered. "Yes Pork, just place them exactly as they were in the other closet."

She came to stand in the doorway of the bedroom. Rhett was sitting facing the window, legs casually crossed. Pork exited the closet a few moments later. "Thank you, Pork. Now if you could…" Rhett stood and turned towards the door. He noticed her and paused. His face took on a cold amusement. "Ah…perhaps you should take a break and go downstairs to help with supper." Pork answered with a "Yessuh" before leaving the room.

"Good evening, Scarlett." Rhett stated. He was still standing with one hand in his pocket, the other one holding a cigar.

"What are you doing?" she asked. He couldn't be doing what she thought he was doing, but it was obvious that he was.

Rhett chuckled at her barely contained anger. "It is really all for you, my dear." He laughed again. "Well, you and your charming dream, Mr. Wilkes." He took a draw from his cigar before continuing. "You could call it a gift if you like."

"What…?" Scarlett couldn't speak. She was finding it hard to breathe as anger and another feeling she was too furious to name exploded within her.

"Ah! Speechless! I knew you would be. It is a kind gesture on my part, to be sure. I am losing quite a lot, I suppose. I always did like the view from that room." His eyes sparkled menacingly.

"Rhett…" She choked. "You can't mean that you…!" This was not what she had planned.

He laughed again. "I see that, as usual, you need it spelled out for you in big bold letters, Scarlett." His mouth accentuated every word as he spoke it. "I decided that our current living arrangements didn't engage well with the circumstances of our relationship." The confusion on her face was evident and Rhett chortled at her ignorance.

"You're…leaving me?" Scarlett murmured.

"Sometimes I wonder if there is hope for you yet, my pet." She seethed. "I suppose that is one way of putting it. But perhaps the best explanation would be that it is a…mutual arrangement between two estranged spouses."

"You can't do this!" Scarlett's voice was shaking from the shock and anger coursing through her. This had not been what she had expected. This was not what she planned.

This was not what she _wanted_…

Rhett's face hardened. He cast his half smoked cigar to the side after putting it out on the corner of the dresser. "On the contrary, my little wife, I can. And I have."

"I…I am your wife! How can you do this?"

"Easily, Scarlett." He settled in the chair at the window after adjusting it to face her. "And like I stated before, it is more for you and your lover than anything. I am simply trying to make it easier for you to live chaste and faithful lives for each other."

"Don't try to blame this on me! You are the one who—" Rhett leaped from his chair and sprinted across the room before she could finish her sentence. He grabbed her shoulders, his touching again sending tremors of excitement through her veins.

"I will not share a wife with the dream of another man! I told you last night that it wasn't enough, and it still isn't, Scarlett!" He let go of her shoulders and grinned. His words were coated with mockery. "I have never been one who would settle for second place Scarlett. Silver has never been as impressive as gold…I was sure this was a principle in which you firmly believed as well, my darling?"

Scarlett reached out to hit him. He was faster than she was and easily grabbed her wrist as she wrestled him, struggling to attack any part of him she could get her hands on. "You hateful low-down cad! You can't do this! I am your wife!"

"Ah Scarlett! You are proving my point rather vividly, my dear." He heaved a great sigh and shrugged with an insincere look of exasperation on his face. "It isn't going to be hard for _me, _my dear." He turned away from her and laughed harshly. "Replacing a wife…now, that would be rather difficult. But I still have a wife, just not a body. And bodies are always easily substituted…"

Scarlett looked at him with objective horror. "You wouldn't…you couldn't go to…" All of her anger left her, as a horrific image filled her mind: Rhett passionately stroking and provoking euphoria…in another woman. She felt the bile fill her throat.

Rhett smirked at her. "Ah my dear, you are so very ignorant of what men are really like. What they need. Don't look so surprised! And cheer up…now the horribly inconvenient temptation of your husband can no longer interfere with your dreams of Ashley! We both get what we want!" His laugh was hard and rough.

Her hand came hard across his face before he realized it. He didn't even flinch, but continued leering at her. She turned and walked out to enter her own room, where for the second night in a row she cried herself to sleep.

**More A/N's:** Well, I hope you enjoyed it!! Please review and let me know! I'll give you a goodie…is that a bribe, did you ask? Oh yes…yes it is!! LOL

And one more thing. Okay, I know that this is a GWTW fanfic and everything. And I know that some of you are going to be like "What the crap!" when I say this…but I have noticed in looking at some of the profiles of the lovely readers and reviewers of this story(yes, I am stalking you :) JK Don't get freaked out…) that many of you are fans of Phantom of the Opera. And I am too…big time. And I had to pump up an author in that fandom who has written some of the best stories in fan fiction history. Of any fandom! Her name is _Quiet2885 _and—my gosh!—this girl can write!!! She is, in all honesty, the most amazing author I have ever read and I HAD to pimp her up a bit…if you are a POTO fan, check her out!!! :) Even if you aren't POTO fan you will love her stuff...really... For those interested she is currently writing a story called "Martyr" which is freaking AWESOME!! But she wrote an EPIC saga called "When All Is Lost" and it's sequel "Amongst the Living"…these two pieces are my absolute favorite pieces of literature of all time… Seriously…I can't brag on them enough…

Okay, I am done now… :) Just wanted to recommend some really freaking good writing!! :) If anyone decides to read her stuff let me know! I love to discuss her stuff. I could talk about it forever...can you tell? :)

Come and review now, please!! We have cookies... :)


	11. Chapter 11

Well, I know that I told some of you that I would be updating sooner and I am sorry. My vacation threw me off and I just got over the flu (blah!). I couldn't think straight to finish typing up the chapter…trust me I tried. But I am here now, and I hope that you can forgive my long absence. I will try to take up my once-a-week schedule again, but it might be two weeks because classes are starting to pick up and stuff. However, I would really like to finish "Sur le Mariage" by Christmas (at the latest) so I can start my next project (Yay!). That being said, please know that I will be trying my hardest for once a week updates.

Anyway, as you all know, I have a review goodie which is part 3 of our little outtake/parody. :) I am sure you are eager to find out what happens… :) Make sure you sign in! If you don't, I can't send you the review goodie when you review and that just isn't fair, now is it? :)

As always, a huge thanks to _Skyebugs_, who is the sole reason I can keep it all straight in my head. :) She really is the greatest ever!

~*~

She waited.

For the past few nights, she would lie down at night but she refused to sleep. She had learned from that mistake days before. When she closed her eyes, knowing that her husband was not home, her mind was instantly bombarded with blasphemous images. Flashes of his hands on skin. Pulling and pressing, stroking and molding. His lips…everywhere. She could hear him. Oh, God help her! She could hear his harsh staccato breathing; it was almost tangible on her skin. She could hear the shameful yet glorious words he had groaned into her ear as he moved with her…

Then he would lean over her to kiss her—but his lips would crash violently into a stranger's mouth. And then she would realize that it was a stranger's body. Someone else was hearing those words. Someone else was reaching for him. And he was reaching back…

She would wake up then, sobbing. A reaction, she had reasoned within herself, which was instinctual. She did have a history with nightmares, after all.

She refused to acknowledge the things plaguing her mind with regard to her husband. She had convinced herself that she could easily forget that night. That she could forget him. But she would only become more frustrated when she didn't—couldn't—forget.

In the light of day, it was easy to hide from her troubling thoughts. She would go to the mills, and work until she could find nothing else to do. Then she would go to the store, and organize and reorganize and move boxes and look over the books until there was no light left in the sky.

Yet at night, in the darkness of her room, her thoughts and feelings were illuminated. Not breaching the barrier she had placed upon herself when she was in the confines of her room—her very own room, breathing shallowly and listening intently to every creak in the house—was an impossibility. In that, she couldn't abstain from listening and waiting for a sign that her husband had returned from…wherever it was that he went.

The irony of her situation was glaringly obvious, even to one such as herself. She had been more than willing to give up all rudiments of marriage just months before, yet now, she couldn't be more willing to have it all back.

She longed to talk with him again. Her body ached for him, and her mind was haunted by him. Every night it seemed to get worse, and sometimes she felt that she would explode if she couldn't at least be close to him. She remembered with shame what she had done just the night before…

_She heard him. He came home much earlier than he had any other night. He entered through the front door and headed straight up the stairs on heavy feet. She listened as he inched closer to her door. His steps were so close; she could hear the carpet shifting beneath his shoes. Her breath caught and she sat up swiftly in her bed when she heard him pause, just feet away from her door. He opened the door to his bedroom a moment later, and Scarlett's heart sank to the pits of her stomach._

_Before she could lie down again, she heard a crash. Her heart jumped at the sudden noise. She knew that it had come from Rhett's room and she wondered if he had fallen or hurt himself, or…Another muffled crash prompted Scarlett to jump up from her bed. Without conscious thought, she started to inch closer to the doorway. About halfway to the door, she heard another crash. And another when she reached the door. She opened the door slowly, careful not to make a sound. She opened it just enough to see out into the hallway. She saw a small stream of light coming from his door and realized it was slightly ajar. Standing there in her doorway, she waited for the next crash. It never came. She could hear him from all the way down the hall, breathing harshly. Heavily. It made her skin flush with memories…_

_Her breathing unconsciously adjusted to match his until she was breathing in time with him. She quietly stepped outside of her room and inched towards his door. The semi-opened door gave Scarlett just enough of a view to be able to see him. He was sitting on the bed, shattered glass all around him. He held his head in his hands as his fingers viciously clawed at his scalp. She suddenly couldn't seem to think rationally. And with the sound of his breathing in her ear, she found herself desperate for _her_ hands to be raking through his hair. Her insubordinate mind imagined closing the space between them, grabbing him and forcing his heated breath on her skin again. Her knees went weak at the possibility._

_He suddenly looked up at the door, and for the briefest moment she feared that he had __noticed her presence__. When he showed no sign of seeing her, she realized that because of the angle of the door he could not. She was sure by now that if he had seen her he would be laughing at her._

_That was when her __reason__ had returned to her. Of course he would laugh at her! He would see _her_…spying on him in his room! The room that _he_ had chosen when he had left her! She quickly withdrew from her place by his door, hot and angry tears on her cheeks. _

_As soon as she entered her room, softly closing the door behind her, she walked to her bed and slammed her fists into the mattress. She gripped the quilt painfully as she vowed to herself she would forget him. __Tonight…well, people often do unusual things at night,__ she reasoned within herself. Why, she remembered when she had been a child that she had awakened in the middle of the night once and had imagined that one of her bed posts was a ghost. How ridiculous! This was the exact same concept…nighttime and darkness do strange things to an individual's mind at times._

_She felt _nothing_ for him. And she _would_ forget him…_

"_If it is the last thing I ever do on God's green earth…" she brutally whispered to herself. She would forget about him. She would forget by remembering. _

He_ left. _He_ didn't want her. _

_And _she_…couldn't summon an explanation, even within herself, for why this made her sob more __relentlessly._

_What a fool!,_ she thought to herself, remembering her reaction. What had been wrong with her anyway? Why couldn't she stop thinking about him? She turned quickly on her side, her body begging her to sleep as she begged it to stay awake.

In the end, she fell into another restless sleep and dreamed of waiting at Rhett's door for him to come home.

~*~

Scarlett awoke the next morning and continued her ritual that she had established over the past week. She would call Mammy upstairs to help her ready for the day. She would take her breakfast in her room and as soon as she was able, she sprinted down the stairs and out of the house, assuring that she would have no…encounters.

Ashley's mill was always her first stop, because there was always more to do there. It was easy to spend hours there, just checking over the books and things. For the first few days, she was content to be near Ashley. She felt a sense of peace in her heart in just being close to him. He was something of a comfort and security; something she couldn't recall anyone else ever being in her life.

He didn't say much. When he did speak, to ask or answer a question, it always led to some recollection of the past. She would always try to discourage him from these discussions and had ignored his comments altogether on several occasions. It produced an odd sense of guilt in that she felt guilty for her method of dissuasion, and yet didn't feel shame in her need for deterring him.

Though loyalty and love for him burned strongly inside of her, she was finding that, as the days went on and she continued to spend more time at his mill, she was becoming…irritated.

Oh, how awful for her to think such things about Ashley! How could she be irritated with him? But she was. And she realized that the irritation was growing the more she was around him.

It wasn't colossal and overbearing behavior that was aggravating her, either. It was small, miniscule things that were starting to get under her skin. She would say something that she had found to be funny, and he wouldn't laugh. She would ask him a question or mention something to him and he would seem to completely misunderstand what she was saying. She would tease about something or tell a joke, all in good fun, and he would take her seriously. Sometimes he would even gently admonish her for her words. Her irritation was unnerving, because she had never felt anything for Ashley but a reverent and abounding love.

She squelched the irritation, and continually reminded herself of his love. Of the reasons why she loved him. Her mind instantly went to the first day that she had seen him again at the tender age of fourteen, and she would savor the memory. But it did little to help her with her frustration. It had been almost a week, and she had to reluctantly admit something that she had never thought would be a possibility. She knew that if she continued to linger at his mill as she had been, it would be all too easy to lose her patience with him.

That was why she left his mill early. She stopped by Gallegher's mill and the store. But things were organized and running smoothly. Spending the past week doing nothing but working had gotten her so ahead that even_ she_ couldn't find anything to do.

She decided to go over the inventory of the store for the second time that week when she saw there was nothing to do. However, she soon realized that sitting was the last thing she needed to be doing. Her lack of sleep for the past few nights was catching up with her. Every time she blinked, it was a struggle to open her eyes again. On several occasions, they didn't open and she would suddenly jerk awake, wondering if she had been asleep for an hour or for just a moment. But she continued her work, refusing to go home and rest.

The office had become dimmer as the day went on, making it even more difficult to stay awake. She rested her weary head in her hands and the last thing that she remembered was looking at the records for striped muslin…

Then suddenly she was jerked awake.

"Scarlett! By God, I'm going to…get up!" She looked towards his face, but couldn't see him in the dark.

"Rhett?" Her voice cracked with sleep.

"You little idiot!" His voice was edged with barely contained fury. "What the hell were you thinking?" He was pulling her up by her arms and it hurt. Her arm was tingling from the awkward position that she had fallen asleep in and it made it hard to move.

"I walk into that gargantuan castle that you call a house tonight and everyone is in a panic! No one knew where the hell you were! Damn it, Scarlett! The children were in tears! Mammy couldn't get them to sleep, they were so worried!" Things were starting to come into perspective as he spoke, and she realized that she was still at the store. What was he going on about?

"Not that you would care, would you? You have never given a damn about those children!"

Now that her eyes had adjusted, she could barely see his silhouette in the dim light of the moon coming from the windows. "What are you going on about?" she asked in confusion.

Rhett's eyes flared at her words and he whispered several vulgarities that weren't appropriate for a lady. He stiffly laughed before answering, "You, my darling little vixen, are completely oblivious, as is always to be expected. It is currently almost two o'clock in the morning. You are officially, what would be politely called, a 'woman of the night'." His voice was losing its edge and was being replaced by his normal menacing sarcasm.

"Two o'clock?!" She was suddenly wide awake when he mentioned the time. He laughed at her harshly, and without a word grabbed her from behind the knees, slung her into his arms, and headed for the door. He was holding her to himself tightly, as if she might try to get away. On the contrary, she grabbed for his neck in surprise, breathless.

"I can walk by myself, you cad!" She said, finally processing all of his hateful words from just moments before.

"Ha!" he said, "I suppose that reading a clock is a much more difficult task, yet you seem to be too ignorant to do even that. No, my dear, I am in doubt of all of your abilities at the moment."

She should have been angry at his words as she had been a moment before, but any comprehensive thought had left her head once her senses had caught up with her surroundings. She was in Rhett's arms and she could feel every part of his torso against her side. She could feel his breathing and even adjusted her face so that she could feel it whisper across her cheek. His fingers were digging into her thigh and her ribs, making her treacherous mind scold her for wearing a corset. She suppressed the urge to bury her body deep into his, to nuzzle his neck with her nose as she deeply breathed in his unmistakable scent.

When they reached her carriage, he tossed her in unceremoniously. Her temper spiked again and she quickly folded her arms across her chest. How could she feel such things for such a repulsive rogue?

When he climbed into the carriage from the other side, she stated. "I am perfectly capable of taking myself home, thank you."

"As has already been afore mentioned, my pet, the affirmation of your capabilities is, under the circumstances, completely unsatisfying." With a snap of the reins the carriage started to move.

She tightened her crossed arms over her chest. A part of her wanted to be mad at him. After all, he was a cad of the worst kind. But another part of her could only concentrate on the fact that his shoulder was touching hers…

~*~

Pork was waiting for them when they reached the house. Rhett handed over the horse and carriage to him as he climbed down. Scarlett helped herself out of the carriage. Once she was dismounted she turned to find Rhett standing beside her and before she could comprehend anything else, she was in his arms again.

She wanted to protest. She wanted to yell at him and say mean and hateful things to him to get him back for everything he had said at the store. She wanted to make him think that she didn't want his hands on her. That she hated the thought of him touching her. She wanted to yell at him to put her down.

…but she was afraid he would listen.

So she said nothing and they traveled through the foyer and up the stairs in silence. However, when she realized that Rhett was carrying her in the nursery, she questioned him.

"Where are we going?"

"My dear, I promised your children that I would bring you back from whence you came. I cannot let them believe that I am not a man of my word." Rhett dropped her to her feet at the foot of Wade's bed.

"They are asleep!" she whispered. "I am not going to wake them up over something this ridiculous." She turned from him to leave the room.

"A good mother would…" his tone was coated with cynicism.

She turned around, in a rage. "I am a good mother! I have never done anything but provide for and take care of them!" She fed them and clothed them and she had birthed them! Who could expect more from a mother?!

"I never said you weren't anything but the epitome of motherhood, my dear!" he said with mock alarm.

"We both know what you were trying to say! You have always tried to say that-"

Rhett's laughter cut her off. "Scarlett, a cat could do the things you just mentioned. You, my dear, are a _mother_. But you are not a _good _mother. A _good _mother does more than provide and give care. She takes them places and does things with them…and informs them that she is safe after she had decided to do something foolish."

She stood in the doorway of the nursery and realized she was now faced with a dilemma. If she did go to wake the children up, Rhett would think that she was doing it because he had said she should and he would smirk at her in that vulgar way. But if she didn't do it, he would forever hold it over her head that she wasn't a good mother to her children. She decided that one moment of his hateful grin would be better than a lifetime of mockery and stomped over to the side of Wade's bed.

She summoned the sweetest voice possible, "Wade, darling." She gently shook him. She reached over next to Ella's bed and gently shook her too. "Ella, dear." They both awoke slowly, and upon seeing her sat straight up in bed. Ella jumped at her and hugged her and Scarlett tried not to be annoyed by the fact that she pulled her hair in the process. Wade just sat in bed.

"I just wanted to let you both know that I am alright. Mother fell asleep at her store. But she is home now." Scarlett patted Ella on the back awkwardly as she stroked the coverlet that lay atop Wade's knee.

Scarlett glanced behind her at Rhett, who was standing to the side with his arms crossed. She couldn't see his face but she was sure that he was intently watching and listening.

"I know you were both worried, so tomorrow Mother is going to do something special for you both! Won't that be nice?" Both of their faces lit up, and they eagerly whispered, "Yes, Mother!"

"But you must go to bed now." They both nodded. Ella climbed into bed and Wade settled down again. Still aware of Rhett's eyes on her, she leaned over both of them and kissed their foreheads. She turned away from them and headed for the door, triumph clearly written on her face. She stopped when she heard someone quietly clear their throat. She turned slowly towards Rhett.

"What?" she questioned causally.

He walked over to her and grabbed her by the arm, causing her heart to jump. "I believe you forgot someone…" He led her to the crib on the other side of the room.

She glared at him before bending over the cradle and kissing her daughter's cheek. She glared at him once more before she headed to her own room.

"Good night, Scarlett." His voice was full of amusement. She fumed at his tone.

She was a good mother, damn it!

~*~

**A/N: **Thanks for reading! Remember, I have a goodie for reviewers! :)


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **You know what…I am going to stop even making excuses. It is truly ridiculous that I can't get these chapters out in a more timely fashion. But the end of my semester was crazy. Christmas was crazy…and it's just all been really CRAZY!!! I realize that I just said I wouldn't make excuses and I still did, but it is all in hopes that you will forgive me. I know that eventually…you get pissed when people tell you they will update and they don't. I think I understand the author's side of it a little more now, but…can you forgive me? Can you? ::insert big, glistening sad eyes and queue heartfelt music::

This chapter is a little shorter than the others, but I will try to get the next one out as soon as I can. :) It was a necessary chapter, and adding anymore to it wouldn't have balanced, so… :)

**On Rhett's Reaction to Scarlett's Being out Late: **Some people voiced some confusion on why Rhett exploded on Scarlett for being out so late. Perhaps it was that the writing lacked detail, or maybe it made more sense to me that he would react that way than to others. But I still wanted to explain his reaction. It was past twelve o'clock at night. Scarlett was well known for riding around by herself and she was a woman who lived in the nineteenth century. I suppose it made sense to me that Rhett would be upset and worried about Scarlett not showing up at the house, when there was a chance of something happening to her. And because of the culture of the time where women were concerned. If it still makes no sense to you, then just ignore it :) It really has no true bearing on the story itself. The event was merely a means to an end :)

**On Review Goodies: **As usual, I have a review goodie for those who review. I was going to have one more installment to our fun-filled "Belle" outtakes. But I think I will leave those the way they are for now. I have an outtake ready for your enjoyment from the last chapter :) I think you will like it :)

Special thanks to my poor, abused beta. The poor dear tries to keep me on track, but I guess I am just a rebel. I don't know what I would do without you, skyebugs! :) She helps me so much on this story and my story that is soon to come…if I ever finish "Sur le Mariage" :) You guys just don't know…I might type it out, but she perfects it! Thank girl… :)

*~*~*~*

_My dearest Sister, Scarlett,_

_It has been so long since the last time that we spoke. And I cannot tell you how sad that makes me. But I suppose we both have been set on different paths by the Almighty One, and estrangement is our lot. However, I am sure that our Wonderful Father in Heaven knows all and sees all. In this, and the fact that we know that His thoughts and ways are higher __than__ our thoughts and ways, we can rest assured that though our time together at present is scarce, our future with God is great in that land above flowing with…_

Scarlett yawned, and skimmed down a few paragraphs. She knew that Carreen would go on for at least another page about their future together in heaven, or something like it. As she skimmed, she searched for names or words that indicated any kind of gossip. Scarlett much preferred letters from her aunts in Charleston, and her friends in the County. They always had the latest gossip and Carreen rarely uttered a word that wasn't related to the church.

Scarlett continued to scan her sister's letter hoping, in vain, that she would find something of interest. And as it seemed she would not. Just as she was about to toss the letter to the side, something caught her eye.

…_and Pa and Mother used to kneel down with us at the end of every day and we would say our prayers together as a family. Those are the memories that give me hope. I remember often the silly times that we used to have together. In fact, I often reminisce of a particular memory that at the time wasn't at all laughable, yet when I recall it, __warmth __fills my heart._

_It is a memory of Pa and the two of us. I was very young, probably only a few years old, and the memory is as clear and alive as it was years ago. You were probably about seven years old, and I worshiped the very ground that you walked on, sister. My greatest dream was to be exactly like you…so naturally I asked Pa to take me along __when__ he offered to take you on a walk. I remember the walk through the fields; the wind always created a strange sea of sand-colored waves, making me believe upon first seeing the ocean that it was some abysmal, cold replica of the bright, glorious fields of Tara__.__ We took a trail through the forest. I remember being frustrated with the roots and vines that weaved along the path. They made it difficult for my tiny legs to manage the hike. Pa showed us how to enjoy honeysuckle and wildberries…and how not to. We were…_

Her vision was now clouded to the point that she could no longer see the words on the page and some of the words were unexplainably bleeding through the paper. She stood up angrily and threw the letter into the fireplace. She knew the rest of the story all too well. It was one of her favorite memories as well.

The irony is that the event itself was entirely unpleasant.

She had begged Pa to take her out walking ever since the day he had come back from riding with three honeysuckles in his hand. He offered one to each of the sisters. Scarlett remembered that Suellen, being the wretched creature she was, dramatically spit the delectable gift from her mouth and proclaimed that she hated it. She and Carreen could scarcely talk of anything else for days after. It was such an adventure! Tasting the wild, nomadic delicacy was equivalent to riding the back of an untamed horse for two young girls, scarcely introduced to the world that lay outside of Clayton County. So when Gerald saw their delight in testing the honeysuckles, Scarlett supposed he got carried away. Because after tasting all kinds of wildberries and wildflowers along the edge of the woods, all three of them became ill. While she was only confined to bed for a day, her father and sister were sick for a week. Suffice to say, she didn't have the stomach for the vagabond flower any longer.

She sat back down in her chair and watched the letter burn.

She had never understood why that memory had been such a cherished one. She had always thought that it was because of Pa, or because she could take pride in the fact that her body so easily healed while her father and sister continued to be sick. But she didn't believe that was the reason the memory had lingered all these years. Not now.

She thought of the feeling of abandon when, as a child of rare disordered or uncultivated actions, she had taken up the wild flower and consumed it. She had felt like some undomesticated native looking for satisfying provisions. In the eyes of a seven-year-old girl, hungry for life and adventure, the taste of a honeysuckle was epic.

She would come to find that feeling of recklessness was addicting…

She thought of that night, as she often did though she willed her disobedient mind not to. However, this time she didn't fight it. It was as if it was instinct to recall those feelings when faced with even the slightest recollection of them. A brush of skin or the smell of brandy. Silk sheets and savage emotions. Anything…everything led back to that memory. As if it was pivotal. As if…

She didn't know. She had never been analytical enough to come to conclusions on her own. But, she couldn't help but feel that there was something there…right in front of her. All the time. Something was there every day that she couldn't seem to decipher.

The letter continued to burn. Someone cleared their throat. Scarlett turned around in her seat to see Rhett standing in the doorway. He stood there for a moment, a look of confusion and shock on his face, before he ran to the window. He glanced outside at different angles murmuring to himself. His intentions were still unclear, so she refused to ask the obvious question on her mind, simply for her pride's sake.

And yet, somehow her curiosity won out. "What in God's name are you doing, Rhett?" She asked, angry that she had given in to what could be an attempt at mockery.

"I can't seem to find them…" Now she wondered if he was in earnest. Was he speaking of the children? The servants?

"Who can't you find?" She stood, wondering if she should be looking too.

"The pigs…" His voice trailed off.

_What?_ "What?" she asked. They didn't have any pigs! Was he drunk?

"You know, the ones with the wings. I was sure that they would show up on the day that you were out of bed before noon." He turned around, disappointment caustically written on his face. "I guess I was wrong."

He was infuriating! But…was she laughing? Why was she laughing? Rhett started to laugh too, genuine surprise written on his face.

"You should wake up early more often. It seems that you have more of a sense of humor in the morning. But I suppose after such a nice long nap on that cold, hard desk back at the store, sleeping in a bed is unsatisfying." His words were gentler, and delight radiated from his eyes.

She continued to laugh, not quite knowing what to say and feeling rather queer all over. The room seemed brighter than just moments ago and the smell of breakfast food came from the kitchen more strongly than before. The childhood memory was still on her mind and the feelings it evoked were more vivid than ever. Rhett's face was more handsome than she remembered…

"There is a dining room full of children across the hall wondering what their surprise is, Mother Dear." Rhett crossed his arms, awaiting an answer.

"Surprise?"

"Do you not remember your valiant vow to vindicate your vexing vice by rewarding your children?"

"Oh…yes. I…" She hadn't thought of it. She had no idea what she was going to do. Looking into his excessively patient face, she knew that if her answer was that she had no idea, he would continue with his aggravating gags concerning her mothering skills. And yet, she hadn't a clue what she would get them. It needed to be something great enough to seem meaningful and yet something that would be enjoyed. Something they would love.

The memory popped back into her mind again. It needed to be something memorable, just as the honeysuckles were for her and Carreen. But the thought of getting the children something as miniscule as a honeysuckle was preposterous. Who would be excited about getting a honeysuckle for a surprise? No…this needed to be something much greater, and yet it needed to elicit the same feelings. Like…

"I am going to buy them a pony." She stated with authority. Rhett's smile disappeared.

"I am not sure that is such a good idea."

"Why not?" Scarlett bristled. What could be more exciting to children than getting a horse? And one that is just their size; just for them.

"The children don't like animals. They have always been nervous around them." He spoke in a matter of fact voice. "Perhaps something else. Perhaps you could take them out to the park for the day like you did last week. Or-"

"Don't be ridiculous, Rhett. The children wouldn't get excited over the park! They go there all the time! No…this is something they will really like." She looked at him pointedly, raising her chin. "And I think that I know what my children like and don't like."

Rhett smirked, clearly exasperated. "Of course. I forgot that you know them so well. You do spend an excessive amount of time with them."

And just like that, the fragile truce between them was over. A cloud that had moved in front of the sun cast a shadow into the room.

Just as she was about to bark an angry retort, Mammy shouted out that breakfast was ready.

She turned away from him and marched into the dining room. The children were already seated and eating. Wade and Ella, on one side of the table; Bonnie, who was in the nurse's lap, on the other. Scarlett smiled sweetly at them from the entrance of the room.

"Good morning!" She said brightly.

Wade and Ella looked at her, a little distrustful of her enthusiasm, and shyly whispered back, "Good Morning, Mother."

Scarlett sat at the table, as Mammy brought out an extra plate that always was kept in the kitchen on a small tray to be taken to Scarlett once she woke up. Scarlett ignored the food and pushed it aside, continuing to smile at the children. Even Bonnie was looking at Scarlett now, trying to figure out what was happening to her mother to make her push aside food; Rhett's face registered astonishment.

"Remember that mother said that she would have a surprise for you today?" Scarlett said in a silky sweet voice, imitating the way her mother used to announce exciting news to her and her sisters.

Wade and Ella's faces brightened at the mention of a surprise. "Yes, Mother. We remember," Ella stated excitedly.

"Well, would you like to know what it is?" Scarlett questioned, trying to draw out the suspense. She remembered that it used to drive her crazy as a child.

"Oh yes!" Ella screeched. Wade's eyes sparkled.

"Mother is going to buy you your very own pony!" Scarlett clapped her hands together.

Wade and Ella's faces fell. She could hear Rhett snickering in the corner. She glared at him and then looked back at the children, a little shocked. She had thought that they would surely be excited about such an extravagant gift. All children wanted their very own pony! "Children, aren't you excited about Mother's gift?"

Ella looked down at her food, her little fingers clutching the spoon as she pushed her grits back and forth across the plate. Wade looked up at his mother shyly; ready to explain that they didn't like horses.

In truth, Wade hadn't been able to get anywhere near a horse since he was a little child. The trauma of the ride down Rough and Ready with his feeble aunt and determined mother had left its mark. He would never admit it, especially not to his mother, but he continued to have a fear of open-carriages. He simply dealt with it, for fear of disappointing her. And because he knew that regardless, he would never be babied into doing something. If Wade were to ever say that he was afraid of carriages, his mother would merely toss him in one and send him off anyway.

His own fears aside, he didn't know how Ella would deal with her trepidation of horses. As if she weren't a big enough pest already. He figured she would be an even bigger one if they had a pony that Ella could whine about all the time.

And yet, the way his mother's eyes sparkled when she announced the gift had stopped him from telling her the truth. It was rare that she looked at them with such enthusiasm and it took him aback. She had never looked at him like that.

"Yes, mother. We are really excited," Wade stated as he continued to eat his eggs. Ella looked at him, her eyes filled with a sense of betrayal and fear. She was too young to be brave enough or smart enough to tell Mother that she didn't like her gift.

Scarlett smiled widely. She turned to Rhett, her eyes shining triumphantly. With a grin, Rhett held his hands up in surrender and turned to leave the room. She watched him leave, feeling rather smug.

Wade watched his mother, as he wondered what he was going to do about that horse. She turned and caught him staring. She smiled at him and sat down to eat her breakfast.

He would figure something out.

He would do anything to keep his mother smiling at him like that.

*~*~*~*

Review please! :) I'll give you a goodie… :)


	13. Chapter 13

Thanks for all of the reviews and support guys! Here is the next chapter. This is another transition chapter, but the story will be moving into more plot, and more R/S :) , in the next chapter. So hang in there…and don't you dare just glance over this one and wait for the next chapter now that I have told you! Yeah…I'm watching you… LOL :) Just kidding guys… :)

One more thing…most of you guys already know about this but I definitely think it is worth mentioning again. Cornorama, the author of "Facing the Enemy" and many other wonderful GWTW fanfics, has a sick 5-year-old daughter who is slowly progressing into renal failure. Chase Bank has pledged to give one million dollars to the charity that gets the most votes on facebook. Nephcure is the group that Corn belongs to and is a part of this race. I hope that everyone can take the time to vote for this little girl and so many like her. Finding a cure for this disease could save her life… It won't let me link it on here, because ff DOT net sucks but here is the "link" wwwDOTnationalpeepartyDOTorg. Please, please help out Corn's little girl… It all ends on the 22nd so get over there today!

And, of course, we all need to take the time to watch the "Hope for Haiti" telethon tonight and do what we can to help the people of Haiti.

As is usual, you will get a review goodie :) And this time it's going to be a surprise! Haha! :)

Special thanks, as usual, to the lovely and talented skyebugs. I don't know how I ever used to write without her…she changed my life! Ha-ha! Thanks Bugsy! :)

~*~*~*~*~

Beau jumped from the carriage and ran to Wade. They ran into each other and instantly started chattering incessantly about trivial "boy" things. Little Ella toddled over to the boys and tugged on Beau's pants leg. Beau looked down at the little child with a smile and crotched down to her level, cooing at her. Wade rolled his eyes. For some reason, Beau simply adored Ella. Wade imagined that it was because she was a small child. Some people found that endearing. He just found it downright annoying.

Wade continued to chatter to Beau as Beau awkwardly lifted Ella onto his hip. He nearly dropped her. Ella clung to him, and he continued cooing to her. It reminded Wade of the way Uncle Rhett would talk to Bonnie. It made him sick.

"You have your own pony! That's really wonderful." Beau said to Wade. He looked at Ella, grabbing her hand in his as he spoke to her in a sing-song voice. "Isn't it, little Ella? You have your very own pony!" Ella's face scrunched up and tears quickly filled her eyes. _Here it comes,_ thought Wade. Beau's eyes got alarmingly big as he looked frantically at Wade.

Wade knew that look. It was the same look that folks got whenever they held his youngest sister and she started to cry. It did little for the infant, but spoke volumes to him. _What have I done!_ That's what everyone thought when a baby cried. Some people failed to realize that sometimes, babies just cry! And Ella was the biggest baby of them all…

"What is wrong, little Ella?" Beau stopped and clumsily stroked her curly hair with his free hand. "Are you not excited about the present that Aunt Scarlett got you?" Ella shook her head so hard that she almost knocked herself backwards. Wade decided that, had she fallen, it would have been the single most entertaining feat she would ever accomplish.

She started rambling, tears streaming down her face. Beau placed her on the ground and crotched down beside her. Wade didn't understand half of the gibberish that was coming out of her mouth and he was sure that Beau couldn't either. Yet, Beau sat there and patiently listened to her prattle. Wade stood there, waiting for a miracle. Waiting for her to shut up…

When it sounded like she was winding down from her little tirade, Beau started to search for his handkerchief. He patted her eyes until they were dry. Though most of it was just a bunch of childish jabbering, both Wade and Beau had gotten the jest of what she was saying.

She didn't like horses.

And in spite of all of her annoying ways, her brother couldn't blame her. In fact, he knew that he was in the same boat with her; which made it difficult for him to figure out a way to calm her fears. It was so tiresome, hearing her constantly complain about the _thing_ scaring her. Ever since yesterday, when Mother brought it home, Ella had done nothing but cry over it. And since she was too fearful of mentioning it to mother, of course _he _got the blunt end of her little three-year-old frustrations. If anything he wished he could say something to stop _that. _

He would admit only to himself that he also wished for his sister's comfort. He didn't enjoy seeing her so distressed. It wasn't as easy for her to "buck up" as it was for him. He was a boy! His father had been a soldier who died on the field for his country! He _must _be brave! He must make his mother proud! She had to see that her boy was just as brave as her husband had been.

She must smile at him again…

Beau turned to Wade. "Why doesn't she like horses?" The question irritated Wade. He really wanted to let Beau have it. _How should I know? Am I my sister's keeper? _But he didn't wish to hurt Beau's feelings, so he merely shrugged.

"We should tell Aunt Scarlett." Beau went to pick Ella up again, but stopped short when Wade exclaimed, "No!"

If Beau had been holding Ella, he would have surely dropped her. He had never heard Wade raise his voice before. It was alarming. "Why not?" Beau asked quietly, still in shock from Wade's outburst.

Wade quickly picked Ella up himself, tossing her onto his hip. "It pleased my mother to give us this horse," Wade said, "Ella will eventually learn to like it. Young girls are afraid of horses all the time when they are little, but you see older ladies ridin' 'round on them all the time, don't ya?" Beau looked a little uneasy. Wade tried to smile at him a little, hoping to break the ice that had formed from his outburst.

Beau smiled back widely and looked at Ella. "That's right, Ella. Little girls are always afraid of horses at first, but they grow up to ride them. Big girls always ride horses. Don't you want to be a big girl?" For the first time since they had been introduced to the new pony the day before, Ella's lower lip ceased to tremble. She ran her little knuckles over her eyes as she looked at Beau and nodded slowly.

"There now!" Beau exclaimed, bringing a small smile to Ella's lips. Wade was astonished, wishing that Beau could teach him how he had so easily stopped his sister's day-long tantrum with just a few simple words. It could be useful in the future. Ella wiggled down from Wade's hip and grabbed Beau's hand as they all headed to the back of the house where Aunt Melly and Mother were, with the new pony.

Beau continued, "I knew that you wanted to be a big girl! And you know what, you don't have to ride him at first, you know? I bet big brother will ride the pony first, to show you what it is like. Won't you, brother?" Beau looked over at Wade. Wade looked at him as if he had just grown a second head. Wade knew that he would eventually have to ride the thing, but he had never fathomed doing it so soon. He was barely able to will himself to touch it yet.

Beau, being the thoughtful and introspective child that he was, immediately sensed Wade's discomfort. "Or perhaps, I will ride him first for you?" He was looking at Ella but Wade saw him side-glance in his direction as well. Wade was breathing easier now. Ella seemed much happier with that idea and Wade liked it too. It would give him a chance to see that a boy around his age could indeed ride a horse effectively. Without getting hurt.

Or falling.

Or dying.

~*~*~*~*~

"Oh Scarlett! It's just such a wonderful idea! I know that they love it." Melanie squealed as she patted the miniature horse on the nose. Scarlett smiled, proud that she had done something so impressive for her children.

"Well, I knew I had one when I was a child. It was time, I suppose." She folded her arms. To the outward eye she was sure she looked very pleased with herself. It felt so very wonderful for someone to praise her for something that she had done for her children. Especially since _particular people _seemed to always have something bad to say about her parenting.

The pony was very attractive. She was a light beige color, with white patches on her eyes and mouth. When choosing saddles for the children (Mammy wouldn't allow Ella to ride without a side-saddle) she even found pretty cherry-colored ones that matched the horse's coat. Her children would look so elegant atop the lovely creature. Scarlett's heart squeezed with anticipation at the thought.

"Yes, I have heard!" Melanie said, as she walked towards a bench with Scarlett. "Ashley has told me so many stories. About the county. He told me about the horse races that you and the boys used to have." Melanie laughed. "He said he could only remember one time that anyone ever won a race but you."

Scarlett huffed. "No one ever won when they raced me. One time, Ashley got a head start. It wasn't fair. We called it a draw."

Melanie smiled. "Of course. I imagine it was hard to get past you Scarlett. Was it? Was it hard?" Melanie asked, eager to hear of Scarlett's daring exploits as a young woman. Scarlett didn't notice. She was too busy remembering the particular incident that Melanie had brought to mind.

"…_They were riding home at twilight from Fairhill, he had said: "Scarlett, I have something so important to tell you that I hardly know how to say it."_

_She had cast down her eyes demurely, her heart beating with wild pleasure, thinking the happy moment had come. Then he had said: "Not now! We're nearly home and there isn't time. Oh, Scarlett, what a coward I am!" And putting spurs to his horse, he had raced her up the hill to Tara."_

"Scarlett darling? I believe you left me for a moment." Melanie's kind face looked slightly bemused at Scarlett's blank expression. Scarlett looked at her and frowned.

"How could I have left you, Melly. I have been right here the whole time." She jerked away from the reassuring hand that Melanie offered her.

"Of course not, dear. I just meant…you seemed like you are thinking about something." Scarlett looked at her with unabashed annoyance. _She can be such a ninny, _she thought. People were at _all _times thinking about _something._

"Well, if that's not obvious, Melanie Wilkes, then I don't know what is." Scarlett stood up and strode a few paces away. "Can't a woman think to herself every now and then without someone bugging her to death about it?"

Scarlett stood there in silence for a moment preparing to change the subject and gloat a bit more about the pony, when suddenly Melanie seized her from behind wrapping her arms around Scarlett's torso. Scarlett's first instinct was to push her off. But she merely stood there, wondering if she had gone mad.

"Oh Scarlett! Oh dear, forgive me!" Melanie buried her face into Scarlett's back. _Good God! _

Scarlett twisted around to face her, grabbing her arms and holding her at arm's length. "What on earth are you going on about, Melly?"

Melanie practically had tears in her eyes. "How horrible of me! How foolish! I should have known that bringing up thoughts of your childhood would bring back memories of your family. You did use to ride with your father an awful lot, didn't you?" Melanie's look of compassion was ridiculously sympathetic. And it only made Scarlett angrier.

Melanie continued as Scarlett fumed. "Please Scarlett, forgive me. I know all these things. Ashley told me, but I was being heartless and selfish. Please…"

She looked so desperate and Scarlett didn't feel up to holding a grudge against her at the moment. Besides, Melanie would simply agree with anything that she said at this point. It would be pointless to yell and scream things that would simply be acknowledged as truth.

"Don't be silly, Melly." Scarlett said, pulling away from her. "I was just thinking about what happened with that race you were talking about." Scarlett went and sat back down on the bench. Melanie followed her.

"Oh…" she said, taking a seat next to Scarlett. There was a pause and—once again—Scarlett was about to brag about the pony when Melanie—yet again—ruined it by opening her mouth. "I didn't come to see you on the—" she paused, unsure of how to continue. She dropped her headed and shame filled her heart. "I am the worst sister in the world." Scarlett should have known that this wasn't over. She rolled her eyes.

Scarlett knew that she was referring to the anniversary of her father's death. She wanted to simply act as if she didn't know what Melanie was talking about, but she knew where those avenues would lead…_more _questions. And _more _nagging. She wanted to stop this conversation from going any further, while she still could.

"It wasn't necessary." She stated shortly. She turned away from her.

"But it was, Scarlett." Melanie gently grabbed her hand. "You are my sister, Scarlett. My _very own _sister. And thinking about these things is hard—"

"I don't think about them!" Scarlett jumped up again, leaning over her. Melly merely looked up at her, compassion seeping from her being. "I have let it go! Like you should! Why does everyone keep wanting to talk about what is past? It's already happened. It's over. Let it stay where it should…in the past. Let it go." She turned away from her; she crossed her arms and waited for Melanie's inevitable apology.

"Scarlett, I am sorry. I—" Melly paused. Scarlett imagined it was to think of something degrading about herself that Scarlett would be more than happy to agree with. But Melanie, for the first time ever, surprised her. "Have you truly let go of the past, Scarlett?"

The way she said it, the way she worded it sent a chill down Scarlett's spine. She spun around, a look of horror painted on her face. She couldn't possibly know about…

Melanie misinterpreted the look to be that of mortification and assumed that her statement was offensive. "Forgive me! I didn't mean that you are wrong in anyway, darling. It's just…when I spoke of your past and your father's passing you got so defensive and…"

Scarlett's heart eased within her chest. She didn't know. Not about _that_ anyway. She was merely referring to her father.

"…of course you have let it all go." Melanie continued. "After all, you did buy your children a horse. If it had been me, I am sure that I would have been too afraid. To allow your children to ever ride after your father—" Melly paused. "It is so brave, Scarlett dear. Far braver than I ever could be. Will you forgive me? Forgive me and we will forget this, yes?" Her eyes begged for reconciliation. Scarlett nodded slowly, her mind again elsewhere. She didn't even protest when Melanie grabbed her and hugged her tightly.

A single thought was running through Scarlett's mind._ Pa_ _died. Jumping the fence. Mother always told him not to. He died._

Beau was talking to Melanie. "Of course, darling." She heard Melanie say. Beau walked over to her and asked if he could ride the mare. Scarlett looked down at him. She thought of him riding the horse. She thought of Pa.

"No," Scarlett said. "No, not today. Alright, Beau?" She smiled slightly at him.

Melanie walked over and stood next to her son. "Oh, of course. I should have thought! Wade and Ella probably want to be the first to ride their new pony. And they still need lessons." Melanie looked at Wade and Ella, smiling sweetly at them both. "Perhaps after they have learned we will come back and ride together. I bet you will both ride just as well as your mother and your grandfather when you have learned everything you need to know," Melanie suggested. Melanie looked back and forth between Beau and Wade and Ella. Ella happily nodded, running to her aunt and grabbing at her skirts. Melanie happily slung her in the air, before squeezing a giggling Ella tightly to her chest. Beau watched on in delight, as his mother began to tickle Ella. He soon joined in.

Wade's eyes were fastened on his mother.

Her eyes were distant and worried. Not at all full of fire and excitement as they had been the just the day before. His heart fell. She knew. Somehow she knew that he and Ella had been less than excited about the horse. And now she wasn't going to let them ride because she knew they were afraid.

She was disappointed.

His stomach sunk at the thought of his mother's disappointment. How could he do this to his mother? She surely expected so much more from him. His father had been a great soldier. His grandfather had been a great rider! Of course she expected more. Especially from him…

She looked over at him and caught him staring at her. She smiled at him, a little unsure. Wade felt the sting of tears in his eyes. It was a far cry from the smile of bliss she had given him just a few days ago.

But he wouldn't cry, he decided. No, he would learn how to ride that horse. He wouldn't be afraid of it. He would do his best for his mother. It's what his father would have done.

It's what his grandfather would have done…

~*~*~*~*~

There is a small section within quotations and in italics in this chapter. It was a direct quote from Gone with the Wind. In my book, it was page 28. :)

Review and you get a cookie… :) Don't forget to vote for Corn's daughter and watch the telethon!


	14. Chapter 14

Hey guys! For all of you who got the last cookie…wow! I had no idea that everyone would like it so much! Thanks for the love! :)

As usual, there will be a cookie for the reviewers of this chapter as well. My lovely beta has challenged me to write something from Rhett's POV because, in case you haven't noticed, I don't write from Rhett's POV (what can I say? I am a MM purist… :) ) so you will get another outtake from our beloved novel from Rhett's POV. However, you will have to review to find out where the outtake is taken from… :)

There is some Spanish in this chapter and I'm not good at Spanish... :) If you speak Spanish frequently, please let me know of any inconsistencies. I am pretty sure it's in context though...

Near the end of the chapter, there will be some elements that some might find disturbing. Please be forewarned.

And as always, special thanks to my lovely, wonderful, can't-live-without-her, "nosy" :) beta! :) Inside joke...heh :)

~*~*~*~*~

Scarlett walked into the house from the back patio while the tears that had been forming in her eyes quietly spilled over the edge.

Melanie and Beau had left shortly after Beau had asked to ride the pony. Melanie had hugged Scarlett goodbye, a look of concern in her eyes. She had surely noticed that Scarlett had barely spoken to her or the children since Beau had mentioned the pony. As she said goodbye, Scarlett read the apology in Melanie's eyes and she felt a little remorseful for not reassuring her. But she had too much on her mind.

How could she have forgotten…

The front door swung open when she reached the foyer. She looked up to see Rhett walk into the house. Her heart clenched at the sight of him. When he saw her, he smiled slightly, the opaque mask firmly in place. Their relationship was still so unsure.

But at the sight of her tears, his smile disappeared, along with that contemptible mask, to reveal genuine concern. She watched as the change took place and burst into tears.

"Scarlett…" Rhett ran to her and wrapped her in his arms. "Darling…" He gently stroked her back with his hand as he rocked her back and forth; his cheek rested lightly on her head. She buried her face into his shirt and cried. Why? She wasn't so sure. Perhaps it was the fact that she was, for the first time, wondering if she really was a good mother. Perhaps it was because she had just been bitterly reminded of something she'd always tried to forget. Perhaps…perhaps it was because suddenly she felt like a child again and…

And she just wanted her father.

"What is it, honey?" Rhett whispered into her hair.

"I-" she stopped. "I don't…I don't know. I am just so…sad." Her sobs had softened now that she was clinging to him. Much like the fool who struggles to read the words on the blurry page before him while an eyepiece hangs from his vest pocket, Scarlett often felt that the entire world was covered in a murky fog until Rhett held her and gave her the answers.

"Here…" He reached into his pocket for a handkerchief. He wiped her eyes and nose for her. It felt so wonderful. Her father used to do the same thing for her when she was young. It still amazed her that Rhett always seemed to know exactly what she needed. He tucked it back into his pocket when he was finished and led her to the parlor. Once they were inside, she walked away from him, farther into the room.

"Now, what is it?" His voice was so gentle.

"I wish I knew." She wished that she had stayed close to him. It would be embarrassingly obvious if she reached for him now that she had walked away.

There was a short silence. "I saw Miss Melly and Beau leave just now."

"Yes," she sniffed. "They came to see the new pony."

"And it was a big success, to be sure?" His tone could have been patronizing, but it was still so soft that she couldn't believe that he would mean for what he said to be taken offensively.

"Yes, I suppose…" she slowly turned to him, her face downcast. "Rhett, what if I'm…" She was still unsure of whether she wanted to discuss this with him.

"What, sweetheart?" He reached out to her, as he so often did and stroked her cheek. As he had the night she had cried to him on the anniversary of her father's death. As he had that sacred night when she had made love to him and the reproachful night afterwards.

She just wished she knew what he was reaching for…

The relationship that she had with Rhett would never cease to confuse her. And she supposed that had everything to do with the fact that Rhett himself was an enigma to her. How could he remove himself from her bedroom just days before, say the horrible things that he had said to her and then…stand there, with a look of unadulterated concern for her? As if he cared for her….

It would never make sense.

But then again, could she ever unravel the complex feelings she had for him? She was sure that she wouldn't…because even now, after everything, she trusted him. She knew that she would eagerly reveal her deepest secrets to him, just because he had asked.

She finally glanced at him. "Melanie was talking to me today. She was talking about the pony and… She mentioned the fact that Pa…" Comprehension flooded his countenance. Tears stung her eyes again. A tear spilled over and Rhett caught it with the pad of his thumb, still resting against her cheek.

"Scarlett your father was an incredible man. I know I didn't know him well, but I…well, we were acquainted." His smile turned into a smirk and she was sure that he was thinking about Atlanta.

And "The Lament of Robert Emmet".

And settees or suttees or something…

"But Scarlett, your father was also a very stubborn man. Much like you, my dear." His smirk grew. "If your father had been anyone but who he was, then he wouldn't have died in a parade of glory, defending the honor of the Confederacy. Would you have wanted him to be anyone but who he was?"

Scarlett shook her head. He continued. "Of course not. Because what you loved so much about your father was that he was who he was. He was stubborn, hard-headed, and loyal to the very end. He was happy dying, knowing that he defended the honor of his country and his family."

Scarlett pondered this for a moment. She knew he was right. But it didn't make it any easier to accept. It wasn't just that her father was dead.

It was the fact that he was never coming back.

She clenched her eyes shut and turned from him again. "I know that. I do. I would have never wanted Pa to be anyone but…Pa. But I…can't. I…If I admit that he is dead…then I…I know that he isn't coming back. And if he isn't coming back…then…"

Then her mother was never coming back either. Neither were all of her friends. Or her old life.

Rhett sighed, his infinite patience never waning. "You can't let go. You can't let go of any of it." He stated knowingly.

Her mind instantly went to Ashley, and she was aware of the fact that they weren't just talking about her family anymore. She nodded slowly, unable to speak.

"But," she heard him inching closer to her, "would that be so bad? To let go?" He laid his hands on her shoulders. "What are you afraid of letting go?"

What was she afraid of letting go? She wasn't sure. "I don't know."

"I think you do," he said gently as he started to knead her shoulders. She closed her eyes at the feel of his electric hands on her body. "You are afraid of letting go of your childhood because you don't want to grow up. You don't want to lose that security." He leaned down and whispered softly, sweetly in her ear. His voice was so compassionate and his hands were so sensual, she didn't know whether she wanted to cuddle him or ravish him. "You have always been like a child, Scarlett. Part of it is because when I first met you, you were a child. But I think it continued because you didn't want to grow up. You knew that in growing up you would have to let go of too much. So, you continued to live your life as if your father and mother were going to always give you what you want. You continued to see life as a child because you wouldn't have to face hard truths. Truths that cannot be eradicated." He buried his face into her hair, stifling a chuckle. "You are more of a staunch Confederate than you know, darling. You were just lucky enough to have that child-like need for self-preservation in the midst of chaos. You were blessed with that childish determination that is so admirable. So you survived as the world around you crumbled. But that little world in your pretty little head," he tapped her cheek with his nose playfully, "you couldn't let it crumble too. Of course it was inevitable, but you aren't the kind of person to admit defeat. So you held on to the only…" he paused. When he didn't speak again, Scarlett turned around to look at him.

His face was lit up, as if the secrets of the world had just been revealed to him. His eyes were trained on her, shining with new knowledge. He finally spoke again, softly and slowly. "You held on to the only people that you had left."

Those words hit her harder than anything that he could have said.

And she didn't want to hear them.

She turned back around and started to walk away, quickly changing the subject. "I want to get rid of that pony," she stated firmly. "I don't want to put my children at risk. If one of them ever fell like Pa…"

Rhett didn't say anything for a moment. "Alright. We will send it back. But…perhaps you should ask the children too?"

She scoffed. "I am sure that they will be just fine with it. Ella practically bawled when I brought it home." She prayed he wouldn't say 'I told you so'.

He didn't.

"We can take it back tomorrow." She turned to look at him. He was standing across the room. Again. He had seemed so close just moments before. And now…it was as if he were miles away from her again. Out of reach…

His countenance was tired. Like the night she had sworn she would never let Ashley go. But now there was a light shining softly in his eyes. He seemed…hopeful.

"Take what back tomorrow?" Wade asked from the doorway. Both parents looked at him, shocked at his presence and that the usually silent boy was speaking with such forwardness.

Scarlett looked at Rhett then back at Wade. "I am going to take the pony back, Wade."

Expecting to see relief written in the soft brown eyes, Scarlett was surprised to see them light up in a way that they never had before. "Why?" His voice was harsh and hard.

Scarlett and Rhett were both taken back. "Why, Wade…I know that you and your sister aren't very fond of horses and…"

"I like horses just fine, Mother," he stated determinedly. "You haven't even given me a chance!"

Scarlett was admittedly confused. But she was also appalled at his tone. "Don't you speak to me that way, Wade Hampton! I am your mother. We are taking that pony back immediately. It is too dangerous. And your sister is terrified of it!" She took a deep breath and tried to mimic Melanie, realizing that she was getting too riled up. And her boy was shrinking away from her again. "Besides, you don't want your sister to be afraid all the time, now do you? You are such a good brother." She smiled at him indulgently. "I know that you probably aren't afraid. But think of Ella…"

Wade glanced at her again, still slightly shaken by her reprimand. "I-" he said shakily. "I think I can do it, mother."

Scarlett patted him on the head. "I am sure that you can, dear. Perhaps in a few years…" she trailed off, not wanting to make any promises she couldn't keep.

He looked at her for a long moment, seeming to take in every aspect of her face. She looked at him too, and thought to herself that Wade was growing into a rather handsome little boy.

"Alright…" he walked away, his head down-turned.

Scarlett watched him walk away, and for a brief moment wondered if they should keep the pony. He seemed so sure. But she had seen the fear in his eyes. And she didn't want to push him. For the first time, she was thinking about her children's comfort and actions…extensively.

She turned to Rhett. "Rhett, am I…am I really a bad mother?"

Rhett smiled that lazy crooked smile. "Scarlett…I don't think that has ever been in question."

Scarlett scoffed. After the way he had acted this evening, she had been so sure that he would be civil. That he would comfort her again. She should have known better. He noticed her reaction and continued.

"I am afraid you misunderstand me, my dear. Your being a bad mother has never been in question-" she started to retort and he raised a hand and finished, "-_because_ you have never been a bad mother."

Her defenses suddenly dropped and she physically felt her posture fall a little. "But you…you-"

"Yes, Scarlett. I know what I have said. I have said many things." He paused. "I have said many things that I didn't mean." He glanced down and Scarlett thought he almost looked…repentant. "Many things that I knew weren't true." He looked at her again with a grin. "What can I say? You bring out a very bad side of me…"

She straightened again and started to argue. He stopped her, obviously exasperated. "Good God, it's not an insult! Please let me finish…It was never a question of you being a good mother, Scarlett." He looked at her meaningfully. "It was always a question of you being the _best _mother. For your children and for yourself."

She blinked, taking in his words. She had never thought of that. She stared at him for a moment. He was smiling.

She smiled back.

"Well...I have always striven for the best…" she stated, a little shyly. She had to admit, hearing it from Rhett was like hearing it from the pope. She was a good mother. And she could be the best…

He believed in her.

Rhett chuckled. "That's my girl…"

A few minutes later Mammy yelled out that supper was ready.

~*~*~*~*~

Her eyes haunted him.

They had been full of indulgence. She truly didn't believe that he could do it. She didn't think that he was brave enough. That was why she was taking the pony back. He had to prove her wrong. He didn't want to see acceptance in his mother's eyes.

He wanted to see pride.

After dinner, Wade was surprised that Mother wanted to spend some time with all of the children before they went to bed. They all went upstairs to the nursery. Uncle Rhett came too and held Bonnie the whole time, an odd gleam igniting in his eyes every time he looked at his wife. It made Wade want to gag…

Scarlett read them a story and only lost her patience-briefly-when Ella asked some irrelevant question at the peak of the story. "Can I _please _finish the story without being interrupted? I didn't know that I needed a commentary…" Ella seemed wounded for a moment but quickly forgot the scolding as soon as Scarlett began reading again.

After the story was over Scarlett tucked them all in. She kissed his forehead and told him goodnight. She tousled his hair softly and he wanted her to tell him that she loved him. She didn't and he wasn't surprised. He knew that she wasn't being cruel, it was just the way his mother was. He was just glad that she was there.

Uncle Rhett and Mother laid little Bonnie in her crib. Uncle Rhett placed the lamp on the table beside the crib and turned it down until it was barely lit, no doubt leaving it lit for Bonnie's late night feedings.

Wade watched them walk slowly to the door. He could see them outside of the door as they stood in the hallway. They both stood there for a moment whispering to each other, as if trying to stay in the hallway for as long as possible. When it seemed that the conversation ran thin, Mother awkwardly turned towards her bedroom. She looked as if she didn't want to go. And Uncle Rhett stood there looking like he didn't want her to go. Wade didn't understand why they didn't just stay with each other and talk some more or something if they didn't want to leave each other.

Eventually Uncle Rhett turned and walked the other way. Wade heard the front door open and close a few moments later…

~*~*~*~

It took everything in him not to fall asleep. He tried to think about everything. He sang "Dixie" in his head multiple times. He named the Confederate Generals in order and out of order and backwards and every other way he could think of.

And then the house was silent and he was afraid. But he pushed the fear aside and sat up. The soft glow from the dimly lit lamp called to him and he jumped lightly from his bed and ran to it. He picked it up and turned it up a bit.

Much better.

He tiptoed to the door of the nursery and poked his head out of the door before stepping out into the hallway. He walked swiftly but quietly down the stairs and to the back of the house. When he stepped out onto the patio, he realized that it might have been a good idea to bring a pair of slippers. He supposed that it was a little too late to think of that now.

As he walked to the stable, he had to force himself to remember things about his precious mother. How sweet and terrifying she was. He had read lots of Greek mythology with Aunt Melly and any time there was any mention of a great goddess, he always pictured his mother. She was so much like those goddesses that lived on Mount Olympus. Terrible and yet adulated. He wondered if there was indeed a goddess named Scarlett. He would have to ask Aunt Melly next time he saw her…

The doors of the formidable stable stood before him, like a gateway to his nightmares. He didn't believe that he would be able to do this. He was much too afraid. But he forced himself to think of his mother again, and it gave him courage. He placed the lamp on the ground and went to push the door aside. He knew he had to slide the door to the side to enter, and started pushing against it. He strained and pushed and strained. After he had been pushing for a few moments, he thought with some relief that he mightn't be able to open the stable at all. But then the door gave just a little and his heart gave a little with it.

He strained again and his feet slid back behind him. The gap was getting bigger, but it wasn't big enough for him to get through. It gave a little more…and then a little more. And it was just enough for him to squeeze through if he sucked in his stomach and stood just right. He picked up his faithful lamp and squeezed through. The lamp barely fit through the door.

The smell of waste and hay invaded his senses and he scrunched his nose in distaste. He could hear horses all around him, sniffing and huffing. He wanted to run.

But he didn't.

He turned the lamp up some more, Mammy's voice instantly sounding in the back of his mind, warning him to be careful. _Ya don watch dat lamp and ittal lite up like the fi-as a hell. _

He held the lamp up and cast the light into the stalls, searching for his pony. First stall wasn't her. It was just some horse eating hay. The second one was startled awake by the light and huffed at Wade, causing him to jump a foot off the ground. His little heart beat rapidly, but when he saw that the horse meant him no harm, he walked on.

Two more horses startled him. But then he came upon another horse. It huffed. And Wade didn't even jump. He was very pleased with himself and felt a little surer.

It helped, because when he reached the pony's stall and he thought of turning back, he thought of his accomplishment and it pushed him forward. He cast the light on the horse's face, and the little animal didn't even flinch. Wade cocked his head, wondering if there was something wrong. But the horse was looking at him, just as the others had. It sniffed the same way the others did. But the little pony acted as if she…

…as if she knew that she belonged to him.

Wade stared at the creature for another moment in awe. Suddenly she huffed and nodded several times at Wade. He jumped again, but only a little. He understood, in an instinctual way, that she was demanding attention from her master.

He smiled a little as he lowered the lamp to the ground. He wanted to try to touch her but she was too small to reach over the side of the stall door. He looked around and saw a small, lop-sided step stool a few feet away. He quickly grabbed the step stool and set it in front of the stall door. He climbed up on top of it, carefully balancing his weight so that the stool wouldn't tip over. He looked over into the stall.

There she was. She really was very pretty. She nodded her head again, reaching her little nose out to him. He was still so unsure, but he reached out and touched her nose softly. She stood very still, sensing his uncertainty. He was so very grateful. After a moment, he moved his hand up her nose a little and added a little pressure. She stepped closer to the stall door and Wade's hand traveled from her head to her neck. He stroked her mane and thought of how silly it had been to be so scared of such a gentle animal.

In just a few short moments, Wade had created a bond unlike any he had ever known. This little pony had, in an instant, become his greatest friend.

Friend.

His aunt had mentioned something about friendship the other day. She had been reading a book to Beau and him, and she had mentioned a word he had never heard_._

"_Aunt Melly?" he interrupted._

"_Yes, Wade."_

"_What was that word you just said? What does that mean? I have never heard that word before." Melanie's eyes shined with pride at his question. She was always so grateful __when__ he asked questions and seemed to want to learn new things. _

"_It is no wonder you haven't heard this word, Wade darling. It is a word from another language. Amistad means friend or friendship in Spanish." Melanie crawled down on the floor and sat next to him and Beau. "For example, you and Beau are friends. You have a friendship. So you have an Amistad." _

"_Oh…I see!" he had exclaimed, happy to learn something new._

He looked at the pony again as he stroked her soft coat. "Amistad," he whispered. And he knew that it was the perfect name for his new friend.

A disturbance in one of the other stalls startled him and he jerked away from Amistad quickly. She huffed, seemingly annoyed that he had stopped his stroking. He looked at her again and smiled. He was bursting with pride that he had done it. He had petted his horse. He had made friends with her.

He couldn't bear to part with her now.

He would beg Mother tomorrow. He would beg and plead to keep his horse, his Amistad. She was his. And he couldn't give her up. But tonight…he knew that he had to get back inside. If Mammy ever caught him out here, she would beat him. And he imagined that his Mother, his terrifyingly sweet Mother, wouldn't be too willing to keep the horse if she knew of his escapade tonight.

He reached into the stall and patted Amistad's head once more. He went to step back off the unsteady stool but he had moved too quickly and the stool toppled over, and Wade went with it. He landed on his back and his breath was taken out of him. He sat there for a moment, trying to catch his breath…until he saw the fire.

The stool had hit the dimly lit lamp and knocked it over. Just one spark had hit the hay and the straw ignited. The fire spread in the blink of an eye. Wade scrambled to his feet. His first instinct was to run. He started to head for the door. But Amistad neighed fiercely and Wade turned swiftly on his feet to see the fire climbing up the wall and creeping into Amistad's stall. He couldn't leave her.

He ran over to the stall and struggled to figure out how to open it. As the flames got closer, his horse neighed more frantically, as she kicked at the walls and the door. The other horses were neighing now too. The fire was spreading faster than Wade had ever imagined it could.

He continued to struggle with the door. He could hear a great commotion going on behind him in the other stalls. The horses were screeching and kicking desperately in an attempt to be free. He could hear the wood splintering behind him as the doors on the stalls broke and the giant mammals were freed from their confines, desperate to get away from the red heat. All around him the animals were frenzied and the fire continued to build until it was licking at his naked feet.

He finally freed the latch to the door and Amistad kicked it open. Wade struggled to keep up with her as they ran for the door. All the horses were barricaded in. There was only the small crack in the door that he had squeezed through just minutes before. He stayed near Amistad as she neighed and struggled. All of the other freed horses struggled against the door too. Wade let loose of Amistad's mane and decided that he was going to try to get to the door to open it. He pushed past Amistad and melded himself into the cluster of hysterical horses. They pushed him and shoved him but he pressed on. He finally got to the door, and began to push. But once there was room enough for one horse to escape, they all fled in a terrified fury.

And trampled everything in their path.

~*~*~*~*~

Minutes later, the Butler household was awakened to the great light outside of the windows of the mansion.

~*~*~*~*~

Please read and review guys :)


	15. Chapter 15

Hey guys! Here is the next chapter…

The cookie this time is again dedicated to skyebugs. I can't wait for you guys to see it. I think it's the fluffiest thing I have ever written :)

There are two chapters left to this fic, and I will be sad for it to end. But I have already started on another fic, and I wanted to let you guys know that the outtake for the next chapter will be a sneak preview of my new fic. I am super excited about it and I hope that you guys will be too. :)

Also, chapters 1-7 have been revised and reposted. My lovely beta went back and edited :)

Speaking of my beta... :) Thanks to Bugsy…she is one of the dictionary definitions to "awesome". Seriously…go check… :)

~*~*~*~*~

Scarlett stared straight ahead and tried to forget everyone present. She had endured the comments and the condolences from the people of the town. The Meades. The Merriwethers. The Elsings. The Whitings. The Bonnells. The very people who had gone out of their way to shun her were now embracing her and telling her how much she was loved. The irony was not lost on Scarlett that the same women that were wrapping her so cozily in their cocoon of friendship now had been speaking behind loosely-cupped fingers of how hanging was too good for her just days before. There had only been a few she felt really consoled by.

Melanie.

She had run to Scarlett that first morning…after. She had thrown her tiny arms around Scarlett's quivering shoulders and sobbed into her chest. Scarlett hadn't been able to cry. Carreen had arrived the next day, and Scarlett had finally found it in herself to cry into her younger sister's arms. It was strange that she should find comfort in her younger sister. Perhaps it was because when she had walked into Scarlett's room that afternoon, she had looked so like Scarlett's sainted mother. As if her mother were reincarnated in her sister…Carreen had patted her head and crooned words to her that Ellen had when they were both younger. Scarlett closed her eyes and pretended that it was Ellen. It helped…

Suellen couldn't make it to the funeral. Scarlett would have been surprised if she had even attempted to come…

Someone squeezed her hand. Scarlett looked down to see her small, white hand engulfed by a very large, brown one. Rhett. Dear God, how would she have gotten through any of this without him. She looked up at him. He was looking at the priest, his face was drawn and intent. He had been grave and somber in this same way for the past few days. And it was strange, because Scarlett felt as if he were a different man without that impenetrable mask. It was as if she were seeing him for the very first time. And he wasn't sarcastic or cruel. He was a man, who had a heart. And it could break…it had broken.

Scarlett watched him for a moment. Rhett felt her gaze on him and turned to look at her. That was all, and it was enough. For years, Scarlett had been unable to understand anything about Rhett. She had been unable to see his emotions and unable to comprehend his actions. But now, in just one look, she could see everything he was feeling.

He was suffering. She knew that he was suffering just as much as she was…if not more so, for he was the one who had found little Wade outside of the barn.

The whole house had been awakened by the great light outside of the house. Scarlett had been awakened by some of the servants. Everyone ran outside but was at a loss of what to do. The barn was burning to the ground, but the horses were free. That's when Ella asked: "Where is Wade?"

Scarlett had looked around for her boy. Where _was _Wade? He wasn't anywhere in sight. For some unknown reason, a coil of anxiousness began to wind tightly in her stomach. She ran up the stairs and into the nursery, hoping that he was still in bed and hadn't been awakened as the rest of the household. But he wasn't there.

By the time she had come back down the stairs, Rhett was home. He had seen the smoke from town and had raced back. He was walking with Wade's little broken body in his arms. He was still alive then. Rhett had yelled for someone to go get a doctor. But the doctor was too late.

Scarlett would never again feel anguish like she had felt when Dr. Meade officially announced that her boy was dead. The whispered words from the sorrowful doctor had barely registered in Scarlett's mind. "Trampled…chest crushed…must have rolled out of the way…"

Scarlett had kept her eyes on Rhett. As Doctor Meade had explained the situation, he had continued to run his hands through his unkempt hair. Mammy had stood in the corner, soft sobs racking her large body. She occasionally pulled up the well-worn apron from around her waist and wiped her eyes. Scarlett didn't know when everyone had left, when they had put Ella back to bed, or who was taking care of her youngest daughter. The only thing that she remembered was that in the next room her boy lay on a mattress, dead. And she and Rhett were suddenly alone.

Rhett had buried his face in his hands and, heedless of those around him, had cried. He did not sob. He did not merely mourn for mourning sake. But genuine tears of sadness had slowly rolled down his cheeks, onto the elaborate carpet.

She just stood there and watched him cry. A few minutes later—or perhaps a few hours…she wasn't sure—he had lifted his head. His eyes were red but vacant of tears. He looked straight ahead, refusing to look her in the eye. Now that she thought back on it, she wondered if he had been ashamed that he had cried in front of her. Perhaps he had thought that she had left from the room and allowed himself to mourn for the boy who had been like his son. She couldn't be sure, and she never would be. She would never ask him…

"He asked something about 'Amistad'," he said softly.

Amistad?

"He said that he just wanted Amistad to stay. He asked if she was fine." Rhett ran his hand over his face. "I didn't know what to say. I didn't know who it was. I told him yes, but…" Rhett sighed. "I didn't know what to say. He was so…" Grief distorted his usually calm face, and Scarlett felt as if she were in the room with a stranger.

"I think it was the horse," he said. Scarlett walked to the window, and looked out at the smoldering ashes of what had been their barn. The horses grazed in the yard. She spotted the pony and turned away.

She walked out of the room and somehow ended up in her room. She lay down in her bed and fell asleep. She had refused to leave the room until today. That was two days ago…

"I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me…" the priest continued to speak over the tiny, closed casket in the parlor of the Butler home. Scarlett had insisted that her boy was going to be buried at Tara. Next to his grandpa. Mammy had protested but relented when Scarlett threatened never to leave her bedroom until her boy was taken to Tara. She had compromised when Melanie had come to talk to her. She had agreed to a small service in Atlanta, and then a burial service at Tara.

Scarlett looked away from Rhett, but squeezed his fingers slightly as she did. Her heart dropped for a moment when he shifted his hand but it jumped back to life when he entwined their fingers. She tightened her hold on his hand, as if warning him not to move it again. He gripped her hand firmly. He wasn't going to let go.

And he hadn't.

That first morning, when she had awoken, he had been by her side. He would sit with her while she slept, and when she would wake up, he would softly kiss her forehead before walking out the door. She never understood why he would leave. But she never pondered it. And though she wanted him to stay, she was too withdrawn into herself to reason how to make that happen.

She looked at their tightly clasped hands and wondered when they had joined. Had he clasped her hand first? Had she clasped his first? It didn't seem to matter anymore…it just was. It was natural.

She looked up to see that the priest was praying. She stared at him as he spoke recognizable words that she couldn't seem to register. Others started to recite with him, but she couldn't recall the familiar words though she had known them all of her life.

And then it was over.

And there were more people.

She refused to feel anything but the warmth of the hand in hers. She supposed that was why it was such a shock when it was suddenly gone. Her hand was empty and she frantically twisted around to look at the place where her husband had been standing. But he had disappeared. She turned back around and she saw Melanie and Ashley coming towards her.

"Oh Scarlett…" Melanie whispered as she grabbed Scarlett and sobbed into her shoulder. Scarlett hugged her back tightly, closing her eyes at the feel of her friend's miniature hands smoothing down her back.

Melanie pulled back and looked into Scarlett's face. Only when Melanie's hands started to wipe the wetness from her face did Scarlett realize that she was crying. She stared at Melanie for a moment, struck suddenly and for the first time by the resemblance between Melanie and her boy. Her heart suddenly constricted, and a sharp ache filled her chest.

Ashley was behind Melanie. Scarlett looked at him. He reached for her. Scarlett stared at him for a moment, but then looked past him.

There he was.

Rhett was standing on the other side of the room. He was talking to the nurse who held Bonnie as he stroked her tiny cheek. Ella was beside him, her hand in his.

She raced towards him, unconscious of Ashley or Melanie or anyone else in the room. It was as if everyone else had blurred into the background. They didn't matter. She didn't need them. She didn't want them…

She _needed _Rhett.

He turned towards her just as she reached him, and she latched onto him. She didn't care if he pushed her away. She didn't care if he thought she was a fool. The only thing that mattered was that she was near him again, and it wasn't so hard to bear anymore. As his arms wrapped around her, she was sure that even the strongest, tallest fortress couldn't have been safer.

"Don't-" she choked out. It was becoming hard to breathe. She supposed she was crying again.

Rhett started to pull back again. Scarlett grabbed a hold of his lapel, gripping it tightly in her hands. "Don't what Scarlett?" his voice was cautious.

"Don't…you dare walk away from me again." She pulled him to her again, reaching around her and grasping his hand, entwining their fingers as they had been before. Rhett looked at their entwined fingers and his wife's head nestled against his chest.

"I won't," he said softly.

~*~*~*~*~

Please review…and you shall get a cookie :)


	16. Chapter 16

Hey guys! So here is the next chapter. The next one will be the last. I will be sad for this story to end but I also look forward to the future.

The cookie for this chapter will be a preview of my next story. I hope everyone enjoys it and I am so thankful for such faithful reviewers! :) Thanks for the support guys :)

And a special thanks to Bugsy, for all of her hard work. She is amazing :)

~*~*~*~*~

Scarlett stepped out of the carriage onto the red clay. As her feet sank into the moist earth of Tara, her heart eased. She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes briefly before stepping forward. This had always been her safe haven, since she was a girl. It represented so many things that had been hers when she was young.

So many things she had lost…

Her heart constricted again, as she thought of what she _had _lost. She looked up the long drive at the long, slow carriage that had followed her family to Tara. She had lost more in this past week than she ever had in her life. And it was the strangest, most agonizing feeling, to have lost it.

She missed Wade. She had never known that she could miss someone like she missed her son. She had never realized the bond that a mother and son truly shared until it was taken away from her. She had been too preoccupied with other things. Money, survival…herself. She had always loved her children, but she had never taken the time to show them that she did. She had never let them love her…

And now—now, she had lost her son, and she imagined that her feeling towards the loss was very much akin to the emotions that roll through a newly born baby; a baby comes into the world feeling hungry and cold, but can't understand these feelings or what can be done to alter them. They are unsatisfied, but don't know why they are unsatisfied. And so they cry. And while she loved her son dearly and while she missed him more than any words could describe, she had this anomalous feeling of not knowing what she missed.

And that was what was so agonizing…

It was agonizing because what she had lost—even more than the presence of her son from her life forever—was the opportunity to truly know him. To have a _reason_ to miss him. It would have made it easier to lose him. At least, in her present state of mind, she thought so. She would have had something to hold on to. She would have had memories. She would have had…something. But she had nothing. Nothing except for the memory of his face, forever imprinted into her mind. His relation to her. A few dear recollections, which she hadn't even realized she remembered until she had lost him.

It was a slow and terrible torture. Forever, she would miss _nothing_.

And it was her fault.

She turned around and saw that Rhett had already met Will and Suellen on the grand patio. Suellen must have felt Scarlett's eyes on her and she turned to look at her sister. Scarlett had not been looking forward to this meeting. She imagined that her sister's eyes would be filled with accusation. Or perhaps, they would be empty and emotionless, proving that Scarlett's very own sister cared nothing for her loss. Scarlett wouldn't have been surprised. She hadn't even bothered to come to her own nephew's funeral! These thoughts had awakened that familiar contempt for Suellen and she had readied herself for battle on the trip from Atlanta to Jonesboro.

Scarlett imagined that was why she was so flabbergasted when Suellen's eyes caught hers and tears spilled over the brims. Scarlett hesitantly walked towards the patio, and Suellen met her at the edge.

Sue opened her mouth as if to speak and reached out as if to embrace her, but stopped short, unsure of what she should do. She and Scarlett had never been on good terms, even as children. And she couldn't remember a time that either of them had ever willingly touched the other, with the exception of when they were trying to maim one another. Sue reached out and touched Scarlett's arm with the tips of her fingers. "I'm so sorry…"

Scarlett stood there for a moment, at a loss of what to do, much like her sister moments before. She reached over and touched the tips of her fingers to Suellen's hand. "I am too."

Neither sister moved. They merely looked at each other. They would never be close. But they would always be sisters. And Scarlett felt that both of their apologies were considered for more than what they were assumed. Rather, the apologies were for all the wrongdoings done to each other. The offenses committed between them, which neither of them had ever sought or wanted forgiveness for. Scarlett knew that the implied apology was all she would ever give Suellen, and that it was the most she would get from her sister as well. Because they both were too alike and too stubborn to admit fault, even if they knew that there was some fault to admit.

After a moment, Scarlett walked past Suellen, farther onto the porch. Will met her at the door of Tara and hugged her. Rhett was standing with him, and Scarlett turned to him, much as she had these past few days, and grabbed his hand without a thought. He gladly received it.

"Dinner is 'bout to be served, right Sue?" Will stated, looking at his wife. "Will just get ya'll in here and settled an' then we'll sit down and eat?"

Sue walked over to her husband, nodding her head. "Yes, you both go on inside. I think they already took your things up. Mammy has Bonnie, and Ella is with her cousins. Once you have gotten washed up and ready for dinner, I am sure that it will be just about time."

Scarlett nodded. She and Rhett both walked through the foyer and made their way up the grand staircase. She instinctively walked to her old bedroom, which was indeed where their things were. She hadn't considered this when she came to Tara, that she and Rhett would assume a shared room. She feared that he would say something about it, to her or to the servants. As they walked into the room, hand in hand, and began to ready themselves for supper and settle down after the long trip, she went about her tasks tensely. She waited for him to mention his desire to be placed somewhere else. He was, after all, the one who had moved himself out in the first place. But he said nothing. And she knew that she would say nothing.

So…nothing was said. And things just _were_…just as they had been since—

She walked to the window, and watched as the servants carried the small casket into the house. She looked beyond the porch, toward the chapel…and the tiny graveyard where her mother, father and three brothers were buried. God…how was she going to put her boy in the ground…in a cold, damp grave? How could he be there? How could _any _of them—Pa, Mother—how could _they _be there? How could it be that they were dead when they were still so alive in her heart?

Tears started to pour down her face again. A sob broke from her lips. Rhett heard it and dropped what he was doing and went to her. He wrapped her in his arms, and it felt more right than anything else ever had. But even Scarlett knew that it wasn't enough. Rhett couldn't bring back her parents. He couldn't bring back her boy. And…and…he couldn't change the past. But he felt good…so good. And, if it were possible, she imagined that he would do all he was capable of doing to change the past. To bring her parents back. To bring Wade back. And she imagined that this made a difference too. To know that he would always do anything for her…even if it could never be enough.

Suddenly, her husband wasn't such a mystery anymore. As he held her in his arms, she had the tiniest of epiphanies. She knew that it had always been this way. That Rhett had always been willing to do what needed to be done for her. And when he couldn't accomplish something, it was because he didn't have any power to accomplish it—like when he was in jail and she needed tax money—or he believed that she was brave enough and strong enough to accomplish it herself—like when he left her to join the army.

She pulled back from him slightly, feeling like another epiphany, much greater than this one was coming. But it didn't, and it frustrated her because she felt that it was so important. She felt that all of these things pointed to something. She just couldn't think…not now…

"Scarlett," Rhett said softly, as he looked out the window in the direction that she had been looking, "What do you want, darling?" She looked up at Rhett. His eyes were slightly frantic as they searched her face, desperate for any sign of what she was thinking. She imagined that he was so much at a loss because he had never had a problem reading her mind.

"Honey, tell me what you want." He stroked her cheek, and she felt the urgency in his touch. She turned slightly and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror sitting on top of the vanity. No wonder he seemed so worried. Her face was drawn and pale. She almost looked as if she had died herself. Had she been like this all along? Why was she just now noticing?

"I…" she watched her dry lips open in the mirror and quickly turned back towards her husband, shaking her head mindlessly. "I don't know..." She buried her head in his chest again, and again she felt safe.

And it wasn't enough.

But it was everything.

~*~*~*~*~

Scarlett and Rhett went down to dinner. It was a somber and almost tense affair. Silence reigned throughout most of the meal, with the occasional comment from Will and Rhett. It was not entirely unpleasant. Respect and sympathy coated the tones and postures of all of those at the table, only fear of a wrongly worded statement charging the atmosphere with unease. Fear of reminding each other of what had been lost, of who was lying in the parlor behind tightly closed doors…

That night, they all went into Ellen's old office, and spent some time communing. Suellen knitted, while Will and Rhett casually talked about Tara and Will's expectations for next year's crop. Scarlett would have normally given her two-cents worth on the subject, but was not inclined to speak. Rhett had much advice to give Will. Scarlett looked up from the book that she wasn't reading as they conversed, and she listened on with some surprise at her husband's knowledge of planting. Later, she wondered why it had surprised her so. Rhett had, after all, been raised amongst planters. And she found herself genuinely wishing that he had been with her at Tara just after the war.

She needed him with her all the time now. She had always been fond of his company, but now it was as if she _needed _his company. She needed to touch him, constantly. If he was close enough to reach, she would always grab his hand, place her hand on his shoulder, brush her fingertips against the hem of his clothing…

He was on the other side of the room now…She wondered if it would seem strange if she were to go to him now to hold his hand. Maybe she could pretend she was going to get another book and she would brush by him when she walked over to the bookshelf—

Scarlett looked back down at the nameless book, wanting to put the thoughts from her head. This newfound dependency she had procured was unsettling and she was uncomfortable with it. She continued to stare at the unseen words on the page. Part of her wanted so badly to look up at him again. Watch him…

_No…_she said stubbornly. She gripped the edges of the book, struggling not to look at him. She could take perfectly good care of herself. She didn't need to depend on Rhett. She didn't need him.

For the second time that day, Scarlett had the tiniest of epiphanies. Suppose she didn't need Rhett. Suppose she only assumed that she was dependent upon him, in a way in which she felt that she couldn't do anything but give in to the raw emotions she was having towards him. Perhaps claiming that she needed him was a sort of crutch, to which she could merely rationalize within herself that needing him was something that she couldn't help, so that she wouldn't have to accept the things she was feeling as her own. She could blame her craving for him on the _need_, much like someone would blame their need for food on their hunger or their need for water because they were thirsty. Rather, what if it was a cover up of what was really happening within her. What if it wasn't so much that she needed Rhett as that she simply…wanted him?

She gripped the book harder, and looked up at him. He was leaning back in a chair, one of his long legs tossed over the other, his arms resting on the arms of the chair. He was smoking a cigar, speaking softly to Will in between puffs.

Then suddenly, he stood with that slow grace with which she had always attributed him, putting the cigar out as he did. "Thank you so much for your kind hospitality, Will. Suellen," he said warmly. "But I think we will turn in now." Rhett looked at Scarlett, and she quickly placed the book on the table next to her chair. There was still the barest of lights outside. Ella and her cousins had just come inside. Rhett asked the nurse to see to Ella and Bonnie getting to bed, to which the nurse nodded, "Yes'sa". Rhett kissed his daughters' on their cheeks before walking over to Scarlett and catching her hand in his own, causing Scarlett's heart to jump violently. They left the room and quickly walked up the stairs.

No one went near the parlor's tightly closed doors.

That night, when they walked into the room that had once been hers, a comfortable silence resided between them as they readied themselves for sleep. Rhett had walked up behind her as she brushed her hair and had gently taken the brush from her hand and started brushing, much as he had during their honeymoon. After he was finished, he picked her up and carried her to the bed and tucked her in. He was still fully dressed and she suddenly became afraid, wondering if he was going to stay or leave. But after she was safely tucked in, he started to undress.

She observed him discreetly, from underneath the covers. She felt shame in watching him, but she didn't look away. He removed his jacket, his vest, his cravat. Then he sat down in a chair and removed his shoes. He folded those things and placed them neatly in his trunk before he continued. He had turned away from her now, trying to unbutton his shirt and retrieve his nightclothes at the same time. When he turned back around, his shirt was half unbuttoned. He tossed the nightclothes onto the chair, and proceeded to unbutton his shirt when his eyes caught hers. She instinctively buried her face deeper into the comforter, expecting some kind of barbed remark from him for her appraisal. But he didn't say anything. He didn't smile. He continued to look at her as he slowly unbuttoned the shirt. His eyes were soft, glazing over as he looked at her. She continued to stare at him for a moment, and watched as he removed his shirt from his body. She caught a glance of his strong chest and stomach before she finally turned away and closed her eyes tightly.

A moment later, the bed shifted and she felt a rush of air touch her legs as the bedcovers were lifted. Rhett's warmth quickly filled up the space next to her. She was barely given the opportunity to wonder what would happen next before Rhett pressed his body securely to hers. His arms came around her waist and pulled her closer and he buried his face in her neck. Her breath caught and she turned towards him and wrapped her arms around him tightly. Both squeezed against the other, refusing to spare the tiniest amount of space. She buried her face in his chest before slowly brushing her face towards the crook of his neck. She felt his breath hitch, and she nuzzled deeper into his neck, before kissing it softly.

He kissed her forehead softly, then her cheek. Then her nose, her eyes, her chin, her mouth. It was all so untamed, yet so gentle and restrained. Scarlett could tell by his hands and the way he held her and touched her that there would be no lovemaking tonight, and she was just as eager to convey the same message back to him. It was something more than that, and yet the same. They both just wanted to be near to each other. To comfort each other. In a way that no one else could comfort either of them.

The way he kissed her was so gentle, so new…it was intoxicating and she found herself forgetting everything but the sweet, loving sensations of being in his arms. Of touching him softly. Scarlett eventually fell asleep in her husband's arms, as he stroked her back and whispered unheard words into her hair.

~*~*~*~*~

It was a small group of people. Just the residents of Tara. They all gathered in the foyer, before heading out to the chapel and the cemetery. Scarlett was securely wrapped in Rhett's arms, Bonnie was with the nurse, Ella tucked safely into Mammy's skirts. When they carried the casket out of the parlor, Scarlett gripped Rhett's coat in her fingers tightly. He leaned down and softly kissed her forehead and his grip on her shoulder tightened as well.

She would never remember the walk down to the chapel.

She didn't look at Mother and Pa's graves.

There was no preacher, no priest. They all prayed over the tiny casket, Will read some familiar scripture, and then it was over. And they were lowering her son into the ground…

More than anything in the world, Scarlett wanted to turn away. But some part of her felt that if she turned away and refused to watch, she was abandoning him. And, oh God, how could she abandon her little son to this darkness! All of her childhood teachings had told her that Wade was now in Heaven. He was safe. But how could he be safe and happy in a box under the ground for eternity. She stepped away from Rhett slightly, tears pouring from her eyes, as she realized she couldn't leave him. There had been too many times when he was alive that she had walked away from him or from her other children because she didn't want to deal with something or other. She wouldn't leave him today.

She slowly walked towards the grave as the men started to fill it with the red clay of Tara. She knelt next to the hole that her son now occupied and sat with him as they placed the clay over the casket.

Rhett came up next to her and started to tell her that she shouldn't stay. It would hurt her too much. She shook her head brokenly and continued to stare down the hole towards the casket as it slowly became more obscure through the clay.

Rhett's eyes filled with that familiar omniscience, and he sat with _him_ too. Scarlett's sobbed. Truly sobbed, as she had never sobbed before in her life over something that wasn't about her.

Then suddenly, it was over.

The clay was stacked up high above the level of the ground, smoothed and molded into a small hill atop the straight plain of earth. Scarlett wasn't crying any more. Rhett was still there. And it was over.

She felt something shift in her hand, and looked down to see Rhett's ever faithful hand entwined with her own. She looked up at his face, and he was already watching her and looked as if he had been for a long time.

She looked away, some shame filling her chest as she thought of how everyone had just seen her react. Then perhaps…perhaps it was more than that. Perhaps she felt exposed and guilty. Ashamed.

Because the knowledge of her own guilt in the death of her son was eating her up.

"Scarlett…" Rhett whispered. She looked at him, tears running down her cheeks again. "It's not your fault, honey. Stop thinking that it is." His voice was so soft and so deep at the same time it was almost hard to decipher what he had said.

She didn't know why she was surprised at his declaration. Then, perhaps that was why his face had shown such unabashed concern for her since Wade's death. Perhaps it wasn't so much her loss, as it was the fact that he was fearful that her guilt would swallow her up. He knew that she was strong enough to get through Wade's death, but he was fearful of what the guilt would do to her. Fearful that it was one of the greatest factors in what could possibly be the greatest wounding of her spirit.

To her shame, her voice broke when she spoke. "It is. I-I wouldn't let him keep the horse, Rhett. All because I was too much of a coward to let him have it. He wanted it, I didn't. I…if I had just let go of my fears because of things that happened years ago…I…I bought it for him! I—" She stopped short, realizing that her words were incomprehensible. And when Rhett spoke, he didn't speak to her like he had when Frank died, with a soft mockery in his voice. His voice was low and rough as he spoke, tenderness spilling from his lips.

"Scarlett, all of your assumptions of guilt are unfounded. Scarlett, you were right. When you bought Wade and Ella the horse, you were right about both of them wanting it. I was wrong. Remember? How I said that they wouldn't want it? But you knew they would. Wade did. And your fears? Darling, you were right. Horses can be dangerous creatures. You were merely being what a good mother is to her child. You were protecting him…You are a good mother. The best mother, honey…" He caressed her tiny hand, and she leaned into him, taking in his words. Sometimes the only way to see things clearly was to hear Rhett say them for her. He was her translator of life. He always took the pieces and made them a whole for her.

"Come now, darling, let's go inside." Scarlett grasped him tighter.

"Please…not yet." She still felt that if she left her son, he would be alone.

Rhett abided by her wishes, but continued to persuade her. "Darling…he isn't going to be alone. Look at what he is surrounded by…he is surrounded by pieces of you." Scarlett glanced around the tiny grave, seeing the grave of her mother and father. Then she looked at the grave itself. Tara.

"He is surrounded by Tara." She said softly. It was so simple… "I see now." She said. "Tara…he will always be here now." She sat for just a moment longer before she attempted to stand. Rhett aided her in rising and they both walked back to the house.

That night they cuddled to each other much as the night before. But Rhett continually whispered words of comfort to her, and she to him. At one point he even said…he loved her. That had stopped her and she had looked up at his face in an effort to gauge his words. He merely leaned into her and kissed her again, leaving her to wonder whether he had said the words or not.

Leaving her to wonder how she should feel about it if he did…

~*~*~*~*~

Review and you get a cookie :)


	17. Chapter 17

Alright folks, this is the last official chapter...I will be posting an epilogue after this (which I am counting as your cookie...hope you don't mind (: ) but after that, this story is officially finished.

Thanks so much to everyone who read. It's been fun :) Be on the look out for my new story...can't wait to post it :)

And the biggest thanks of all to Bugsy...because I wouldn't have ever finished successfully without her. Thanks pal :)

~*~*~*~*~

The rest of the week stretched into what could conceivably be called normal.

Ella played with her cousins constantly, and was loving every minute of being at Tara. Suellen was starting to be again the Suellen that Scarlett knew. Will was still taking care of Tara to the best of his ability.

And Scarlett was spending every moment she could with Rhett.

After the night of the funeral when Rhett said…when he might have said that he loved her, she had watched everything he did looking for any sign that it might have been her imagination. She watched the way he looked at her and how he acted around her. After a while, she realized that it was all very comical, because she could see in Rhett that he was doing the same thing to her.

He was still holding her and kissing her softly at night. And every night they grew bolder. On the second to last night of their stay, he had kissed her fervently before he softly reached for the hem of her nightgown. She had eagerly allowed him to remove the gown and Rhett had made love to her that night in a way he never had before. Every kiss had been an assurance. Every touch was a comfort. And when he finally entered her, it had created a bond between them that she had never experienced before. She had clung to him in earnest, craving to be closer to him.

Afterward, when they were both dozing to sleep in each other's arms, he had whispered the words in her hair again. And she was sure this time that she heard them. And tears ran down her face at the knowledge.

~*~*~*~*~

They sat down with Will and Suellen on that last night, and ate dinner. Of course, it wasn't much. Will and Sue weren't well off. But Scarlett and Rhett had been nothing but gracious throughout their entire visit, so Scarlett imagined that Suellen's new hateful tone was in result of her offering Will some money that afternoon to help with the costs of her family's stay. Suellen was such a mean thing. Scarlett should have known that that sweetness wouldn't last long.

And was Suellen ever starting to get under Scarlett's skin! It felt like every time Scarlett started to take a bite of her food, Suellen would blurt out something absurd. Like, "I know that in that fancy house of yours with all of your servants and cooks, this isn't a very fitting meal, but I hope you will try to stomach it, Scarlett." Or Scarlett's favorite of the night was a particularly rude comment that Suellen made when Will asked Scarlett about the store. Suellen's eyes had sparked to life, and as her unprepossessing features screwed up unpleasantly, she said, "Yes, well, you have done very well since you got that store, Scarlett. I think that since you got it you haven't ever had to eat vittles like these, have you?"

Scarlett had looked at her incredulously, and then slammed her napkin down on the table. Sue continued to stare at Scarlett, silently asking her to challenge her accusation. Will looked on in horror, and Rhett watched the feud play out, amusement shining from his eyes. To Scarlett's dismay, before they had the opportunity to start their quarrel, Bonnie started crying in the other room. Rhett had excused himself and Scarlett to go see to their daughter.

They exited the dining room. Scarlett murmured under her breath as they strolled toward Bonnie. "That little ninny, can you imagine? Why can't she just let past be past? She's such a bitter little trick…" Scarlett fumed. But quite honestly, more than anger, Scarlett felt…relief? She felt that it had been so long since she had been angry. It was her easiest and most practiced form of emotion, and in a way, it cleansed her more clearly than any amount of crying could. She felt that her chest wasn't so tight just now, and it was easier to focus on other things than just the events of the past few weeks.

Rhett stopped her in the middle of her tirade as they reached the doorway of the room that Bonnie was in with her nurse. Her screams echoed through the hallway, and the nurse could be heard frantically shh-ing her, no doubt fearful of Mister Rhett's reaction when he came into the room.

"Save your speech for a more appropriate time, my dear. You will waste it and the one whose ears you would like to hear it most will not…" His eyes were still shining, but seemed to sparkle in a way she hadn't recognized in them before. It was almost like…well, maybe it was a bit a relief too. Perhaps he was relieved that she had finally done something normal, for her anyway. Perhaps he had been…worried about her.

His face suddenly became serious. "Scarlett, this is our last night here."

She looked down at her hands. "I know."

"Darling, please, look at me." She did, but with a little shock. Though he had been most precious during this week, she was unaccustomed to him being so tender towards her out in the open. "Scarlett, I believe that when we get home there are a lot of things we need to discuss." His eyes were boring into hers.

She didn't look away as she spoke. "I know."

He eased back a little at her admittance and relief seemed to flood his face again, as if he had been worried that she could say something else. "Also, since it's the last night, I thought we could go down and visit Wade's grave. We could do it in the morning, or tonight."

Her heart seized at the mention of her son, but she took a deep breath and answered. "I think…I think I would like to go tonight."

"Alright, I will just go and take care of Bonnie and we will go—"

"No, Rhett. I can go ahead on my own. I…I have wanted to go to the chapel anyway. Mother—" She stopped short, not even sure what it was that she wanted to say. "But after you see to Bonnie," she paused, "please come down. I…I want you to." Rhett's eyes brightened at her words.

"Alright. Are you sure you don't want me to come with you to the chapel?" There was a small smirk on his face. She smiled a little too, thinking of all of the sacrilegious comments Rhett had made throughout their marriage.

"Indeed no. I wouldn't want the earth to open up and swallow us whole in seeking God's wrath on your soul." Rhett laughed, before turning to go into the room where Bonnie was now screaming.

It was dusk, and Rhett started to ask a servant to walk with her but she declined. She knew Tara like the back of her hand, thank you. She didn't need a servant leading her around her own grounds. She exited the house with her shoulders held straight and tall. Rhett watched her with a small smile on his lips.

~*~*~*~*~

Scarlett breathed in the air that only Tara possessed. It was crisp and clean and…home. She stopped at the entrance of the chapel and raised her face to the sky for a moment. She pretended that she was at Tara again back before the war, and she was waiting on her Father to come home from Fairhill or Twelve Oaks or any other plantation in the county. She could almost hear the hooves beating against the ground, coming closer and closer. She opened her eyes, and pushed the images of horses from her mind. She didn't care if she never saw one again…

She opened the door to the old, deteriorating building and paused for a moment once it was opened all the way, her heart jumping before it eased within her chest again. She had been so sure that she would see her mother at the altar, crossing herself and saying her Hail Marys. But the room was as empty as it had been since the day Ellen died. Scarlett felt tears pricking at her eyes and she almost swore before remembering where she was. She didn't want to cry anymore!

She thought of Suellen again. What a selfish brat she was! Why Scarlett's son had just died—her nephew!—and all she can think about is something that happened ages ago. It was ridiculous and immature. She marched into the chapel and sat in one of the small pews just inside the doors.

_The hateful thing_, Scarlett thought as she attempted to conjure more things about her sister that she disliked. _Suellen has always just held on and held on to things that happened when we were…well, when we were just children!_ Why, even before the war, Suellen had always been resentful of Scarlett. Scarlett could remember that, at the Twelve Oaks barbecue, Suellen and India and Honey and the rest of those hateful, pale-faced girls had looked at her with contempt as she rounded up every available male at the party. She crossed her arms as she sat back a little more. It was still her belief to this day that if you can't keep your beau, it was your problem! It wasn't _her _fault if she was more attractive, charming, and entertaining than they were! She looked at the picture of the Holy Mother in front of her, and wondered if it was blasphemy to think these things in a chapel. She shrunk back a little, afraid that she might be offensive with her thoughts, when even more blasphemous ones came to her.

Unwelcome, the thoughts capriciously overwhelmed her mind, as she remembered the horrible nights she had lain awake in her bed just weeks before, wondering where her husband was…wondering who he was with. Hating that he was _her _husband, but was consorting with someone else who was _more charming and entertaining than she…_ Hating _whomever_ he was with…because it wasn't her—

She stopped her train of thought quickly. She couldn't think that way.

Ashley.

Such an empty feeling she felt at the sound of that precious name. So empty. Everything was empty now. She closed her eyes, trying to imagine Ashley's eyes and hair and face. She saw the young man who rode up to her door when she was but a child, and gallantly kissed her tiny hand. And still…empty. Everything was empty.

Except for Rhett.

Light burst from behind her eyelids and she quickly opened them.

The sun had found its way to a lower point in the sky and had suddenly and boldly stretched its remaining rays into the chapel. She squinted her eyes as she looked at it. The sun…the sun was so many things. Scarlett wasn't very educated, but she knew well enough that the sun was needed for growing plants. Cotton and trees. The sun was enjoyable. It was beautiful…

Someone had said something about the sun to her once…something about no one ever noticing it, though it's right there, shining brightly all along.

She smiled slightly. It seemed kind of silly, that no one should notice the sun. It was so bright. So big. It occupied the sky every day. Not to acknowledge it would be as ridiculous as someone not acknowledging their hands or feet. Or food…

Someone had said something about a banquet table too…

Rhett. Rhett had been the one to talk about the sun. That day, in the parlor, when he had kissed her. She—

She cut off her train of thought again. She didn't want to think about these things now. She forced her mind to Suellen again. It was easier to hate her sister than anything else in the world…

_She's as bitter as an old maid, _Scarlett thought. Scarlett looked at the painting of the Virgin holding out her arms above the candles. She was sure that even the Holy Mother would agree. _If she just let go of the past, the hateful thing, she would be so much happier. But no…she continues to hold on to it all. I bet she makes Will miserable, going on and on about things that have already happened. I bet she drives him crazy with talk of Frank. No man wants to live in another man's shadow…Especially a man like Frank! _She looked at Mary, almost expecting her to speak of her agreement. As she continued to peer at it, the painting started to look more and more like her own Mother, and she was reminded of how she used to get the two women confused.

She looked at the painting closer, as she continued to notice features that were the same. The same hair, the same nose and cheeks…or at least she thought so. She was looking so hard at the painting now that her vision started to blur. The sun hit the window at a perfect angle again, casting a strange glow into the room and it suddenly came to Scarlett.

_No one wants to live in another man's shadow… _

After all, she and her sister were so much alike.

And suddenly everything was clear.

And everything was her fault…

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she thought of her son and her husband and her family. She had failed them all because of one flaw: her inability to let go of the past.

Wade had been killed because of _her _fear of him riding horses. Rhett had been trying so hard to make her happy, but she refused to let go of a childhood dream. She looked at the Virgin Mother again and thought of that chapter in the Bible that talked about love, if her religious training served her well it was I Corinthians 13. She looked into the sleeve of the pew to find a worn Bible tucked inside. She grabbed it and flipped to the book and chapter and read it to herself.

She knew that it was all true. With the same practicality that she had always possessed, she accepted what was plain, in front of her face. She accepted things that she had ignored and suspected for ages. Childish fancies had held her and her loved ones back…

She didn't love Ashley.

She loved Rhett.

Unconditionally.

Her heart swelled with the confession, and she breathed deep within herself for the first time in a long time. She could feel the coolness of the air she had inhaled in her toes, she had swallowed it so deep.

She was crying again, but it was a little different now. It was sadness. But more than that…it was _liberation_.

The door creaked behind her and she slowly turned to see her husband in the doorway. She stared at him for a moment, and then looked at the worn book in her hand. She opened it again to the chapter she had just read, and read aloud the last verses:

"…When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

She looked at him again, her eyes shining with her new knowledge. Rhett watched her for a moment and then with wild realization, his eyes ignited at the sight of her. He smiled his old smile, only it was soft and rich with possibility and anticipation.

He spoke gently and with care, but with adorable, adolescent teasing in his tone. "Darling, I never thought I would be so happy to hear Holy Scripture come out of your mouth…"

She jumped from the pew and ran to him.

The Holy Virgin watched on and the chapel remained intact…

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FIN


	18. Chapter 18

Hey Guys! So, with this final chapter, "Sur le Mariage" is official complete. Thank you so much, especially the people who have read from day one, which was a while ago :)

The biggest thanks in the world to skyebugs...I couldn't have completed this without her. She is amazing and I can't imagine writing without her. She takes everything I write and makes it readable and she does way more than any other beta would...she knows what I am talking about...17,000 words and counting, Bugsy! :) You are the greatest, girly :)

So, I am kind of evil... :) There will be an a cookie for this chapter...and it's a two-part smut piece, specifically written to prepare me for the Glut of Smut fest! Wooo! :) Umm...the thing is...you only get part one when you read this epilogue. Part two will be given as a cookie for the first chapter of my new story, which I will start posting in a few days. Am I trying to lure all of you over to the new story?...yes. Is that evil?...probably. :)

Again, thanks guys! Hope to see you soon! :)

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_4 years later…_

"Rhett!" Scarlett yelled from the top of the stairs. Her husband walked into the house and dropped his bags before racing up the stairs to meet his wife.

"Oh, Rhett!" she giggled excitedly as she jumped into his arms.

"It's nice to know that you didn't miss me at all, my darling," he teased as he cradled her to himself.

"Oh, but I did, Rhett!" she pulled away from him and started fiddling with the buttons on his vest. "What did you get me?" she said, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

Rhett laughed loudly. "Oh! My dear, you must hide your conspiracies more aptly. Any man would believe that you missed him and not his gifts with an act like that. But then you give it all away by instantly asking for what you want…I thought I taught you the value of subtlety." He leaned towards her, as if to tell her a secret. She grinned.

"But I did miss you, Rhett," she said coquettishly.

"Indeed," he whispered, "I have yet to see proof of that…"

She leaned her forehead into his and looked him in the eye. "I suppose I will have to give you some proof of my missing you then?"

He gave her a crooked grin and nodded. She inched towards him, her lips just inches away from his, before pulling away and heading down the stairs. "I suppose I will give it some thought and see what I can come up with…"

She had barely made it to the third step before Rhett grabbed her from behind and slung her into his arms. She screamed and giggled loudly, clutching his shoulders as he playfully kissed her neck and cheeks. He had made it to the landing when they were both stopped by a very loud call: "Mommy!" Rhett turned around, Scarlett still in his arms, to see both Bonnie and Ella running up the stairs towards them. Scarlett called to them too and wiggled out of Rhett's arms, blushing at the brazen picture they must have presented the two girls with.

"Bonnie baby, Ella! Are you glad to be home? Did you have a good time?" she said happily, squeezing her daughters to herself.

"Oh yes, Mommy!" Bonnie chirped. "I had the most wonderful time! Daddy took me so many places! We went to New O'leans, and Ken…Kentuck-ty." Scarlett laughed lightly, thinking of how adorable both places seemed when they were called "New O'leans" and "Kentuck-ty".

"I want to see Greg-y!" She said and she started to run up the stairs. Scarlett and Rhett were both shocked. Rhett, Bonnie and Ella had taken this "business trip" because little Gregory had come and Bonnie wanted nothing to do with him. Rhett had known that it was because she feared losing affection, so he had taken her and Ella on a special trip, some three months after their brother was born. Scarlett had stayed behind with the new baby, but had been none too happy about the trip. She had complained about not being able to go. Rhett had teased her about simply being upset because she couldn't bear the thought of being away from him for any period of time, which had bought him a temper tantrum from Scarlett. She refused to talk to him until that night before he left…when he had more than made up for his folly.

They followed Bonnie and Ella up to the nursery and the two girls observed their baby brother through the rails of the cradle while he slept. Rhett admonished them to be very quiet. He peered over the cradle too, stroking the boy's small cheek as he slept.

"He's gotten so much bigger," Rhett said wistfully.

"He is going to be a giant, like his father. One of the many things that he has inherited from you…hopefully, however, the cad in you doesn't wear off on him," she whispered back.

Rhett grinned and laughed softly, causing his wife and daughters to shush him. "Impossible…" he whispered, before sitting in the chair next to the cradle. Scarlett knew that he would sit there until Gregory woke up. He was so enamored of his children. One of the reasons that she had been so surprised by his decision to take a trip with Bonnie had been because she couldn't imagine that he would leave his son when he had just been born. It was so unlike Rhett…but he loved all of his children and he had known that it was what Bonnie and Ella needed. And it seemed to have worked, for now they were much more excited about their little brother.

Bonnie grabbed her mother's skirts and Scarlett lifted her up into her arms. Bonnie instantly started whispering about the things they had done on the trip and the people they had seen.

"Mommy, it was so wonderful! Daddy got me and Ella a kitten…one for each of us. Didn't he, Ella?" Ella nodded happily and joined in on the commentary of the trip.

"…and then, Daddy took us to a place where they had lots of horses! And I got to pet one and Daddy said one day when I get bigger I can have one all for myself!" Bonnie whispered happily. Scarlett looked at Rhett, terror filling her features before being replaced with wild outrage.

"You told her she could have what?" Scarlett screeched. Little Gregory instantly awoke at his mother's outcry and started to bawl. Rhett picked him up from the cradle trying to comfort him even as he tried to explain to Scarlett.

"Scarlett, we talked about this…" Rhett said softly, cooing Gregory and patting his back gently as he spoke to Scarlett. Scarlett put Bonnie down and walked over to him and the baby. She tried to take Gregory from him but he pulled away.

"How could you do that? How could you tell them that…when…" Scarlett's breathing was erratic and she sat in the chair that Rhett had been in. Rhett called for the nurse and turned to his two distraught daughters and told them to go play somewhere for a little while. "Mother is just a little upset about something, but it will be fine…" Relief flooded their faces and Bonnie grabbed Ella's hand and raced out of the room. The nurse walked in a moment later, and Rhett handed the now consoled baby over to her, kissing his forehead softly, before turning to his wife.

"After Wade…how…" Rhett grabbed her up from her seat, and wrapped his arms tightly around her shoulders. She cried into his coat.

Though the pain had faded throughout the years, there were certain moments whenever some event or action would violently reminded their family of what they had lost. Some reminders were bittersweet and some were just bitter. They visited Tara often, taking flowers to Wade's grave and allowing his sisters to bring him trinkets and toys. They had taken little Gregory to Tara whenever he had been one month old.

Gregory had been one of the bittersweet reminders. Whenever Scarlett had discovered she was with child, she couldn't have been more happy; but couldn't help but think of the child that she had lost in the light of the child she was about to receive. Upon holding little Gregory in her arms for the first time, a torrent of raw emotions had overcome her because he was a boy. The last time she had held a boy in her arms that was exclusively hers had been many years ago, and he had possessed soft brown curls and had later grown into equally soft brown eyes…

Rhett soft voice interrupted her thoughts. "Scarlett, darling, remember that we talked about this. If we tell the children that they can't have something, then they will want it even more. We can't hold them back because of our fears…" He leaned back and gripped her face between his hands, wiping the tears from her face with the pads of his thumbs. "We can't live in the past anymore…" he reminded her gently.

She sighed shakily, her eyes dry now. "I know…I just…I can't think about it…right now." He nodded and pulled her back into his arms. They would deal with this for the rest of their lives. And they had the rest of their lives to deal with it.

"Well, we don't have to worry about it now. I told her that she couldn't have a horse for a few years. We will deal with it then," he spoke into her hair.

"Alright," she whispered into his chest. They stood there for a long time, holding each other. Rhett would occasionally kiss the top of her head, and she would nuzzle into his chest. Eventually the nurse walked back into the nursery, a distraught Gregory in her arms.

"I think dat he's hungry, Miz Scarlett." Scarlett and Rhett walked over to the baby and Scarlett took him in her arms. He was awake now, his eyes wide open. He looked so much like Rhett, and he was going to look even more like him now that his eyes were starting to change from blue to dark brown. His skin was dark and he had a beautiful head of hair. The only thing that remotely resembled her on her little man was that she had noticed over the past week or so that he had dimples. He wasn't smiling yet, but when he would scrunch his face up she could see them.

She sat in the chair and started to ready herself to nurse him before looking at Rhett. "Aren't you going to leave?"

Rhett smirked. "I think I would like to stay."

Scarlett blushed but smiled at his impertinence. He was such a scoundrel. "Gregory, you mustn't disappoint me and become the varmint that your father is…this world can only handle one of you." Rhett laughed softly and stroked his son's head as he nursed. Rhett looked at Scarlett as she held her baby and looked down at him, a small smile on her lips.

"You are beautiful…I missed you so much," he said softly, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek.

She looked at him and smiled. "I missed you too." She looked down at her baby again. He had grabbed a strand of hair from her neck and when her eyes met his he yanked it roughly. Scarlett screeched "Ouch!" as she unwrapped his tiny fingers from her hair. Gregory continued nursing as if nothing had happened. Rhett burst into a long round of guffaws.

"That's my boy!" Rhett said happy.

She looked at him, annoyed at his amusement. She reached over and patted his cheek softly before playfully slapping it. He laughed, massaging his cheek in mock pain.

"Cad…" she said, before looking down at her baby again. He looked up at her innocently. He was going to be a tricky one…

"Thank you…" Rhett's teeth showed beneath his mustache. He reached over and kissed her cheek but she pushed him away. Scarlett rolled her eyes when he laughed, but a small smile was on her lips. After a moment, she looked back up at him through her eyelashes. He was still staring at her, smiling.

"If you weren't so handsome, I would divorce you…" she said

"If I weren't so handsome, I would let you divorce me. But alas! I am much too handsome to let you get rid of me." He got down on his knees in front of her, playfully grabbing her ankles from underneath her skirts.

Would she ever be able to insult him without him turning it on her? "You are a varmint, Rhett Butler!"

Rhett's mouth went up in the corner and her heart skipped a beat at the sight of it. She loved it when he smiled like that…

"Indeed, I am, Mrs. Butler." He removed his hands from her ankles and places them on either side of her in the seat, leaning in towards her and his son. "But it's one of the many things that you love about me…"

She leaned into him and kissed him softly on the lips. "It is…" she whispered. His eyes darkened and he kissed her again. He didn't pull away until little Gregory started to fuss.

Rhett sighed. "Just like your mother…" Rhett got up to walk away, just as Scarlett understood his meaning.

Oh, if she just wasn't in love with him, what she wouldn't tell that varmint!

FIN

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Review and you get a very delectable cookie... :)


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